Quotes from John Irving

a school-vacation skier is never the equal to a north-country native.

Melville's Moby-Dick—

These test results were bewildering to Jack's mother, Alice, who considered him to be an inattentive child; in her view, Jack's propensity for daydreaming made him immature for his age.

Whom do I know who's alive whom I love? Good question—one that can bring you back to life. These days, I love Dan Needham and the Rev. Katherine Keeling; I know I love them because I worry about them—Dan should lose some weight, Katherine should gain some! What I

The thing about sin, Jack, is that some people think it's very important and other people don't even believe it exists.

Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Quando chegou a Portland, já tirara as suas conclusões. Era um obstetra; trazia bebês ao mundo. Os colegas diziam que isso era a obra de Deus. E era um aborteiro; também salvava as mães. Os colegas diziam que isso era a obra do demônio; mas era tudo a obra de Deus para Wilbur Larch. Como a Sra. Maxwell comentara: A alma de um verdadeiro médico não pode deixar de ser ampla e generosa.

David Copperfield.

People will always make sides," Garp said, "—of everything.

That's why I hate them. They force you to be like them—or else you're their enemy.

Goodness gracious!" my grandmother said. "Why didn't you begin with Harvard?" "It's not important to him," my mother said. But Harvard '45 was important enough to my grandmother to calm her troubled hands; they left her brooch alone, and returned to rest in her lap.

You're always telling me I don't have any faith," I wrote to Owen. "Well—don't you see?—that's a part of what makes me so indecisive. I wait to see what will happen next—because I don't believe that anything I might decide to do would matter.

As a novelist, he was a little fussy about chronological order, a tad old-fashioned.)

Wasn't this the point Juan Diego had made repeatedly? Women readers kept fiction alive—here was another one. When Juan Diego had used Spanish in crying out the scholastic's name, the Chinese girl knew she'd been right about who he was.

There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments.

Perhaps she had seen what Jack would look like as an older boy, or a grown man, and what she saw in him riveted her with longing and desperation. (Or with fear and degradation, Jack Burns would one day conclude, because this same older girl suddenly looked away.)

But he was sullen about it, with the predictable attitude of someone who has been right—at all costs. And, therefore, wonders if he was wrong.

This is a real-life story, Owen," I said. "It's not a mystery novel." In real life, I meant, there was nothing written that the missing father couldn't

Loving someone as a parent can produce a cloud that conceals from one's vision what correct behavior is.

Most self-destructive behavior is simply ridiculous—never mind how complexly compelled by personal demons.

Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,/And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan.... /These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown/Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.' I know you know what that means: you believe in God but I believe in 'Crass Casualty'—in chance, in luck. That's what I mean. You see? What good does it do to make whatever decision you're talking about? What good does courage do—when what happens next is up for grabs?

One can learn much through the thin walls of summer houses.

Durante un período terrible de la vida, el adolescente se defrauda a sí mismo y cree que puede engañar al mundo entero. Está convencido de que es invulnerable.

El papa Benedicto XVI había dicho que la pederastia se consideraba normal hasta fecha tan reciente como los años setenta. [...] - Benedicto dijo: Nada es bueno o malo en sí mismo. Dijo nada, Clark -repitió Juan Diego a su exalumno-. La pederastia no es nada; seguramente la pederastia sí es mala en sí misma, Clark.