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John Irving Quotes

Writer
A person's faith goes at its own pace. The trouble with church is the service. A service is conducted for a mass audience. Just when I start to like the hymn, everyone plops down to pray. Just when I start to hear the prayer, everyone pops up to sing. And what does the stupid sermon have to do with God? Who knows what God thinks of current events? Who cares?
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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Many things the gods achieve beyond our judgement,'" said the sorrowful girl. "'What we thought is not confirmed and what we thought not God contives.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.
From Last Night in Twisted River
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A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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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.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you will believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.
From In One Person
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(Baseball) is a game with a lot of waiting in it; it is a game with increasingly heightened anticipation of increasingly limited action
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
From The Hotel New Hampshire
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My life is a reading list.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is something wrong with you....but there is nothing wrong with me
From The World According to Garp
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In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases
From The World According to Garp
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It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don't expect me to change.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes—when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
From The Hotel New Hampshire
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When (The World According To) Garp was published, people who’d lost children wrote to me. ‘’I lost one, too,’’ they told me. I confessed to them that I hadn’t lost any children. I’m just a father with a good imagination. In my imagination, I lose my children every day. (afterword)
From The World According to Garp
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A person's faith goes at its own pace. The trouble with church is the service. A service is conducted for a mass audience. Just when I start to like the hymn, everyone plops down to pray. Just when I start to hear the prayer, everyone pops up to sing. And what does the stupid sermon have to do with God? Who knows what God thinks of current events? Who cares?
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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Many things the gods achieve beyond our judgement,'" said the sorrowful girl. "'What we thought is not confirmed and what we thought not God contives.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.
From Last Night in Twisted River
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you will believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.
From In One Person
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(Baseball) is a game with a lot of waiting in it; it is a game with increasingly heightened anticipation of increasingly limited action
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
From The Hotel New Hampshire
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My life is a reading list.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is something wrong with you....but there is nothing wrong with me
From The World According to Garp
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In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases
From The World According to Garp
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It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don't expect me to change.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes—when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
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It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
From The Hotel New Hampshire
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When (The World According To) Garp was published, people who’d lost children wrote to me. ‘’I lost one, too,’’ they told me. I confessed to them that I hadn’t lost any children. I’m just a father with a good imagination. In my imagination, I lose my children every day. (afterword)
From The World According to Garp
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A person's faith goes at its own pace. The trouble with church is the service. A service is conducted for a mass audience. Just when I start to like the hymn, everyone plops down to pray. Just when I start to hear the prayer, everyone pops up to sing. And what does the stupid sermon have to do with God? Who knows what God thinks of current events? Who cares?
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Many things the gods achieve beyond our judgement,'" said the sorrowful girl. "'What we thought is not confirmed and what we thought not God contives.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
O God — please give him back! I shall keep asking You.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.
From Last Night in Twisted River
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you will believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.
From In One Person
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
(Baseball) is a game with a lot of waiting in it; it is a game with increasingly heightened anticipation of increasingly limited action
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
From The Hotel New Hampshire
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
My life is a reading list.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In this dirty minded world, you are either someone's wife or someone's whore. And if you're not either people think there is something wrong with you....but there is nothing wrong with me
From The World According to Garp
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In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases
From The World According to Garp
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It is your responsibility to find fault with me, it is mine to hear you out. But don't expect me to change.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way the mail stops coming, and her scent fades from the pillows and even from the clothes in her closet and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of her that are gone. Just when the day comes—when there's a particular missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that she's gone, forever—there comes another day, and another specifically missing part.
From A Prayer for Owen Meany
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
From The Hotel New Hampshire
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When (The World According To) Garp was published, people who’d lost children wrote to me. ‘’I lost one, too,’’ they told me. I confessed to them that I hadn’t lost any children. I’m just a father with a good imagination. In my imagination, I lose my children every day. (afterword)
From The World According to Garp
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