I'm not writing non-fiction. I don't feel anything about me as a kid was unique. Except that I had more interest in being alone and using my imagination. -John Irving Imagination
And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer, you better like being alone. -John Irving Alone
If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. -John Irving Courage
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. -John Irving Sympathy
If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. -John Irving Life
With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time learning what it's like to live in someone else's shoes. -John Irving Learning
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. -John Irving Family
I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography. -John Irving Imagination
It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them. -John Irving Sympathy
I grew up around books - my grandmother's house, where I lived as a small child, was full of books. My father was a history teacher, and he loved the Russian novels. There were always books around. -John Irving Teacher
The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of. -John Irving Architecture
