Quotes from John Irving

His exposure to storytelling, through Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte, had ill prepared him for characters who came from and traveled nowhere -- or for stories that made no sense.

Logging is most dangerous if you're impatient; saws and axes, peavys and cant dogs—these tools belong in patient hands.

We did not realize that there were forces beyond our play. Now I know they were the forces that contributed to our illusion of Owen's weightlessness; they were the forces we didn't have the faith to feel, they were the forces we failed to believe in—and they were also lifting up Owen Meany, taking him out of our hands. O God—please give him back! I shall keep asking You.

Women readers kept fiction alive—here was another one.

Na vida de um homem, seu tempo é apenas um momento... os sentidos, a luz mortiça de uma vela

La gente, persino le brave persone - ché certo Wally era una brava persona - facevano un sacco di critiche a qualcuno con cui poi si mostravano perfettamente affabili.

We had never had a pet—my grandmother thought that people who kept pets were engaged in the basest form of self-mockery, intentionally putting themselves on a level with animals.

Jenny was not surprised to hear that prostitution was legal; she was surprised to learn that it was illegal in so many other places. "Why shouldn't it be legal?" she asked. "Why can't a woman use her body the way she wants to? If someone wants to pay for it, it's just one more crummy deal.

I'm not an anti-feminist! Of course you're not, Garp told her. They make everything so black and white. Of course they do, said Garp. That's why I hate them. They force you to be like them - or else you're their enemy. Yes, yes, Garp said. I wish I could talk.

Of course, apologies are rarely acceptable to true believers—or to anyone who believes in pure good, or in pure evil.

If or when there's another plague, I hope America has a better plague president than Ronald Reagan," the

Yet no litany of sexually transmitted diseases was likely to scare Edward Bonshaw away; sexual attraction isn't strictly scientific.

el tipo de contemporización que se permite un joven cuando considera que ha «evolucionado» más que su maestro. Larch dotó a Fuzzy Stone de un inconfundible

Cho? ju? tyle razy prze?y?em m?k? i ?mier? Chrystusa, nieodmiennie niepokoj? si? o Jego zmartwychwstanie - jestem przera?ony, ?e w tym roku si? to nie uda.

WHY NOT DO ANYTHING--IF THE ONLY REASON NOT TO IS NOT GET CAUGHT? he asked. DO YOU CALL THAT MORALITY? DO YOU CALL THAT RESPONSIBLE? THE PRESIDENT IS ELECTED TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION; TO PUT THAT MORE BROADLY, HE'S CHOSEN TO UPHOLD THE LAW--HE'S NOT GIVEN A LICENSE TO OPERATE ABOVE THE LAW, HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE OUR EXAMPLE!

Sempre há suicídios entre as pessoas que não conseguem dizer o que querem

Higgins, Helen was aware, was a singularly eccentric and troublesome colleague, who managed at the same time to be dull and cloddish to the point of sleep.

That image of how the children can lift Owen over their heads in Sunday school—how he is light enough so they can easily pass him back and forth when the teacher is out of the room—is not only as near to the beginning of the novel as I could find a place for it; that image is echoed at the end of the novel, where Owen's seeming weightlessness is interpreted to mean that he was always in God's hands. But the penultimate paragraph of the

THERE'S LIFE ON EARTH, THERE'S HEAVEN—AND THERE'S HELL." "I think life on earth is hell," I said.

You just go up the Hudson," I told him. "Sure, man," he said. "Up the what?

Well, lion tamers are probably difficult to live with—I suppose there's no small amount of testosterone involved in taming lions," Vargas said, shrugging.

IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT -- IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND A WAY OF LIFE YOU LOVE, YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT.

Um epílogo, disfarçado de resumo do passado, é realmente uma forma de nos alertar sobre o futuro.

It would always amaze me, how Frank could make pure idiocy sound logical.