My life is a reading list. John Irving More Quotes by John Irving More Quotes From John Irving In increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss. John Irving childhoodeventsloss He wished he could arrange a maiming as a kind of moral lesson John Irving moral-lessonsmorallessons A truly happy woman drives some men and almost every other woman absolutely crazy John Irving happy-womancrazymen But I felt certain that if the world would stop indulging wars and famines and other perils, it would be possible for human beings to embarrass each other to death. Our self-destruction might take a little longer that way, but I believe it would be no less complete. John Irving selfwarbelieve But I often think that so-called glamorous people are just very busy people. John Irving busypeoplethinking …there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time. John Irving nakedfirst-timefirsts He had in abundance youth’s most dangerous qualities: optimism and relentlessness. He would risk everything he had to fly the plane that could carry the bomb within him. John Irving optimismqualityrisk but writers, Garp knew, were just observers - good and ruthless imitators of human behavior. John Irving ruthlessbehaviorhumans (Baseball) is a game with a lot of waiting in it; it is a game with increasingly heightened anticipation of increasingly limited action John Irving baseballgameswaiting It seems to me that people who don’t learn as easily as others suffer from a kind of learning disability—there is something different about the way they comprehend unfamiliar material—but I fail to see how this disability is improved by psychiatric consultation. What seems to be lacking is a technical ability that those of us called ‘good students’ are born with. Someone should concretely study these skills and teach them. What does a shrink have to do with the process? John Irving skillssufferingpeople In the world according to her father, Jenny Garp knew, we must have energy. Her famous grandmother, Jenny Fields, once thought of us as Externals, Vital Organs, Absentees, and Goners. But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases. John Irving grandmotherenergyfather YOU LET ME DROWN!” Owen said. “YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING! YOU JUST WATCHED ME DROWN! I’M ALREADY DEAD!” he told us. “REMEMBER THAT: YOU LET ME DIE. John Irving let-mesaidremember All I say is: Let us leave les folles alone; let's just leave them be. Don't judge them. You are not superior to them - don't put them down. John Irving superiorstolerancejudging Garp drank the beer and wondered if everything was an anticlimax. John Irving drankifsbeer And Father said, “There are no happy endings.” “Right!” cried Iowa Bob – an odd mixture of exuberance and stoicism in his cracked voice. “Death is horrible, final, and frequently premature,” Coach Bob declared. “So what?” my father said. “Right!” cried Iowa Bob. “That’s the point: So what?” Thus the family maxim was that an unhappy ending did not undermine a rich and energetic life. This was based on the belief that there were no happy endings. John Irving iowavoicefather Owen Meany believed that “coincidence” was a stupid, shallow refuge sought by stupid, shallow people who were unable to accept the fact that their lives were shaped by a terrifying and awesome design – more powerful and unstoppable than the Yankee Flyer. (a train) John Irving yankeespowerfulstupid The former stewardess glared at her ex-pilot husband as if he had been speaking, and thinking, in the absence of sufficient oxygen. John Irving oxygenhusbandthinking I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous. John Irving nervousnot-afraid You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you know. John Irving one-dayopportunityworld Don’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it. John Irving imaginestoriesremember
