Quotes from John Irving

Why do we need them if we hate them?" the daughter tiredly asked. "We hate them because we need them," the mother answered, her speech slurred.

In the World according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead …'" Pastor Merrill assured us. "'For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead,'" my father said.

If you're fortunate enough to discover a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

um auditório já cansado de fazer ecoar discursos que ninguém ouvia.

Quel ch'è più arduo ad accettarsi, riguardo al passare del tempo, è che le persone che un tempo contavano tanto per noi siano adesso chiuse fra due parentesi.

Jack wouldn't have wanted to be buried there. If you were lying in that graveyard, facing south, you would be looking at an ugly seventeen-story high-rise for the rest of your death.

At Owen Meany's burial, one of Owen's Sunday school classmates remembers how easy he was to lift up. "He was so light—he weighed nothing at all! How could he have been so light?" Because God already had His hands on him—that's how.

There are always suicides," Garp wrote, "among people who are unable to say what they mean.

IF WE FIRST APPEAR IN THE PLEISTOCENE, I THINK THIS IS WHEN WE DISAPPEAR - I GUESS A MILLION YEARS OF MAN IS ENOUGH

No, it's never easier. The new book doesn't know the first four were ever written.

no planning, Graff--that's the first thing. No mapping it out, no dates to get anywhere, no dates to get back. Just think of things! Think of mountains, say, or think of beaches. Think of rich widows and farm girls! Then just point to where you feel they'll be, and pick the roads the same way too--pick them for the curves and hills. That's the second thing--to pick roads that the beast will love.

When you start sleeping somewhere you know will be the last place you'll get to make your home, that's when the future has a certain finality, too.

Ni siquiera una sorpresa

Vargas isn't supposed to be faithful to a woman he hasn't slept with! Vargas only wants to sleep with Dr. Gomez, Lupe.

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!" Remember that? Remember then?

And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it, -perhaps your favorite sentence- to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that perhaps moved you to tears.

In my arms, which I realized had grown very strong, I held the former Big Ten star, who was as heavy and meaningful, to me, as our family bear, and I stared into the short distance that separated us from Sorrow.

I know three things. I know that my voice doesn't change, and I know when I'm going to die. I wish I knew why my voice never changes, I wish I knew how I was going to die; but God has allowed me to know more than most people know—so I'm not complaining. The third thing I know is that I am God's instrument; I have faith that God will let me know what I'm supposed to do, and when I'm supposed to do it. Happy New Year!

Sure, I know them. You can't exactly get lost in Winnipeg.

My brain is sending poison to my heart, he told Homer...

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

Irgend jemand sollte Mrs. Reagan sagen, dass keineswegs die jungen Leute - nicht einmal die Drogenkonsumenten unter ihnen - für die gewichtigsten Probleme, vor denen die Welt steht, verantwortlich sind!

Heather moved her fingers all the while they were walking, as if she were unconsciously playing a piano or an organ.