John Irving
John Irving
John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 March 1942
CountryUnited States of America
trouble misunderstanding
when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble.
character thinking trying
I always begin with a character or characters, and then try to think up as much action for them as possible.
serious intention sexuality
Human sexuality makes farcical our most serious intentions.
writing self stupidity
You bet I write disaster fiction. We have compiled a disastrous record on this planet, a record of stupidity and absurdity and self-abuse and self-aggrandizement and self-deception and pompousness and self-righteousness and cruelty and indifference beyond what any other species has demonstrated the capacity for, which is the capacity for all the above.
suicide mean people
There are always suicides among people who are unable to say what they mean.
notebook writing thinking
I have lots of notebooks around, because one great advantage of writing by hand-in addition to how much it slows you down-is that it makes me write at the speed that I feel I should be composing, rather than faster than I can think, which is what happens to me on any keyboard.
firsts first-time terrible
Adolescence-is it the first time in life we discover that we have something terrible to hide from those who love us?
presidential agendas blind
Patriotism is not necessarily defined as blind devotion to a president's particular agenda - and that to dispute a presidential policy is not necessarily anti-American.
like-you enough adolescence
A part of adolescence is feelimg that there's no one else around who's enough like youself to understand you.
believe book taken
Along the (writing) way accidents happen, detours get taken... But these are not "divine" accidents; I don't believe in those. I believe you have constructive accidents en route through a novel only because you have mapped a clear way. If you have confidence that you have a clear direction to take, you always have confidence to explore other ways; if they prove to be mere digressions, you'll recognize that and make the necessary revisions. The more you know about a book, the freer you can be to fool around. The less you know, the tighter you get.
sex sleep writing
I am compulsive about writing, I need to do it the way I need sleep and exercise and food and sex; I can go without it for a while, but then I need it.
book writing long
I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to get the first draft.
intellectual analysts old-fashioned
I'm old-fashioned, a storyteller. I'm not an analyst and I'm not an intellectual.
heart collaboration compromise
I'm not a movie person. They're collaborations of the worst kind. You must compromise yourself to many interests that are venal and crass and do not have your best interests at heart.