Quotes from John Irving

You can see why we children asked so many questions. It is a vague story, the kind parents prefer to tell.

Hijo de la chingada!

In this dirty-minded world," Jenny thinks, "you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore—or fast on your way to becoming one or the other. If you don't fit either category, then everyone tries to make you think there is something wrong with you.

We had learned this fact of Sorrow, previously, from Frank: Sorrow floats.

It was madness that had killed Jenny Fields, his mother. It was extremism. It was self-righteous, fanatical, and monstrous self-pity. Kenny Truckenmiller was only a special kind of moron: a true believer who was also a thug. He was a man who pitied himself so blindly that he could make absolute enemies out of people who contributed only the ideas to his undoing. And how was an Ellen Jamesian any different? Was not her gesture as desperate, and as empty of an understanding of human complexity?

every study of the gods, of everyone's gods, is a revelation of vengeance toward the innocent

No estoy aquí, que soy tu madre?

Come amiamo amar le cose per conto di altri! Come amiamo che altri amino le cose tramite i nostri occhi

It's not God who's fucked up, it's the screamers who say they believe in Him and who claim to pursue their ends in His holy name!

Grown-ups shouldn't finish books they're not enjoying.

Am I not here, for I am your mother?

And I? With Egg and Mother gone—and Sorrow in an unknown pose, or in disguise—I knew we had arrived in a foreign country.

You oughta carry a calculator," Emma told him, "or at least write everything down.

Richard Abbott, who I thought knew everything, answered: "I don't know, exactly.

You write about when it's safe for a widow to re-enter the world, but there is no such thing as a widow for one year. I will be a widow for the rest of my life!

That Emma was a restless soul was obvious, but not even Jack (not even Emma) was aware that something was seriously wrong with her.

Don't forget: Miss Frost was an older woman, and that goes a long way with boys—even if the older woman has a penis!

He wanted to leave, but now it was his fate that held him. Sometimes, when we are labeled, when we are branded, our brand becomes our calling: Wilbur Larch felt himself called.

Imagining something is better than remembering something

Were those traveling businessmen, whom Alice solicited alone, ever confused by her intentions? The one lady who said she wanted a tattoo wanted nothing of the kind. Not only was she surprised to find a four-year-old in Alice's hotel room; she wanted him to leave.

DON'T GIVE ME THE SHIVERS,' Owen said.

What no person has a right to is to delude others into the belief that faith is something of no great significance, or that it is an easy matter, whereas it is the greatest and most difficult of all things.

you've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. You have to keep passing the open windows.

Imagining the stories you want to write, and waiting to write them, is part of the writing process—like thinking about the characters you want to create, but not creating them.