Quotes from John Irving

In this world," Franny once observed, "just when you're trying to think of yourself as memorable, there is always someone who forgets that they've met you.

Retrieving Sorrow is a kind of religion, too.

We'll be back, with more ashes for you!" el jefe had shouted. "You

In short,I might take seriously the idea of service to my country when my country begins to demonstrate that it gives a shit about me!

In those days, a tattoo was still a souvenir—a keepsake to mark a journey, the love of your life, a heartbreak, a port of call. The body was like a photo album; the tattoos themselves didn't have to be good photographs. Indeed

It means touch, basically—almost a hammered kind of touch

Merrill was most appealing because he reassured us that doubt was the essence of faith, and not faith's opposite.

It's not like writing a novel. It's easy to know the future when I'm making up the story.

Garpo žodžiais tariant, žmogus auga tik užbaigdamas viena ir prad?damas kita.

He had a body like coat hangers - the perfect body to hang clothes on. Stripped, he had barely a body at all.

Rape was an outrage even God couldn't understand.

As in many things, my mother could be extremely accomplished without being in the least original or even inventive.

Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried.

The day women stop reading—that's the day the novel dies!" the

What wouldn't you believe when you were four, and your mom was the manager of your so-called memories?

when you scare off the Angel of Death, the Divine Plan calls for the kind of angels you can't scare away;

Clara Swift is asleep, her head on the cowboy's saddle; the cowboy sleeps with his head in Clara's lap, his Stetson on his stomach.

The world has many unintentionally cruel mechanisms that are not designed for people who can walk on their hands.

Not only did Catholics kneel and mutter litanies and creeds without ceasing, but they ritualized any hope of contact with God to such an extent that Owen felt they'd interfered with his ability to pray—to talk to God DIRECTLY, as Owen put it.

As could be seen by the fate of the man who could only walk on his hands, Garp had a thing about escalators.

the public entertainment of any period distinguishing the period as clearly as its so-called politics

No es buen momento para un terremoto," Lupe used to say. "It's not a good moment for an earthquake.

Er Schrieb an Helen, dass Jungsein zum Teil auch aus dem Gefühl besteht, dass es niemanden gibt, der dir genug ähnelt um dich zu verstehen

there was an atmosphere of injustice that enveloped them both. Owen felt that God had assigned him a role that he was powerless to change; Owen's sense of his own destiny—his belief that he was on a mission—robbed him of his capacity for fun.