Quotes by John Irving

“Youve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.”

“We invent what we love, and what we fear”

“Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesnt. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!”

“Oh FUCK the longings and agonies of youth.”

“Half my life is an act of revision.”

“To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense.”

“There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep.”

“Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.”

“Keep passing the open windows.”

“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.”

“I take people very seriously. People are all I take seriously, in fact. Therefore, I have nothing but sympathy for how people behave - and nothing but laughter to console them with.”

It´s natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but you have to let everything happen to them. You cant interfere with people you love any more than youre supposed to interfere with people you dont even know. And thats hard, ..., because you often feel like interfering -you want to be the one who makes the plans.

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.

My life is a reading list.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But dont expect me to change.

Youve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.

In this dirty minded world, you are either someones wife or someones whore. And if youre not either people think there is something wrong with you....but there is nothing wrong with me

In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases

Dont forget this, too: Rumors arent interested in the unsensational story; rumors dont care whats true.