John Irving quotes - page 3

Kids are perfect people till grownups get their hands on them. (John Irving)
The more clearly one sees this world; the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist. View quote
John Irving
The only way you get Americans to notice anything is to tax them or draft them or kill them. View quote
John Irving
They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other. View quote
John Irving
My life is a reading list. View quote
John Irving
Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England. View quote
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. View quote
John Irving
I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes – toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings. View quote
John Irving
Safer than we are.” I told Franny. "Safer than love.” "let me tell ya kid,” Franny said to me, squeezing my hand. "Everything's safer than love. View quote
John Irving
How we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes. View quote
John Irving
when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble. (John Irving)
...there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time. View quote
John Irving
We will often do anything to pretend that nothing is on our minds. View quote
John Irving
He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored. View quote
John Irving
O God - please give him back! I shall keep asking You. View quote
John Irving
I have learned that the consequences of our past actions are always interesting; I have learned to view the present with a forward-looking eye. View quote
John Irving
Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic. View quote
John Irving
It was a sound like someone trying not to make a sound. View quote
John Irving
It's a no-win argument - that business of what we're born with and what our environment does to us. And it's a boring argument, because it simplifies the mysteries that attend both our birth and our growth. View quote
John Irving
Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true. View quote
John Irving
A woman half dressed seemed to have some power, but a man was simply not as handsome as when he was naked, and not as secure as when he was clothed. (John Irving)
Everybody dies ... The thing is, to have a life before we die. View quote
John Irving
The arrangements that couples make in order to maintain civility in the midst of their journey to divorce are often most elaborate when the professed top priority is to protect a child. View quote
John Irving
Self-hatred is worse than loneliness. View quote
John Irving
Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole. View quote
John Irving