The book works better if I know everything I can about the ending. Not just what happens, but how it happens and what the language is; not just the last sentence, but enough of the sentences surrounding that last sentence to know what the tone of voice is. I imagined it as something almost musical. Then you are writing toward something; you know the sound of your voice at the end of the story. That's how you want to sound in those final sentences: the degree that it is uplifting or not, the degree that it is melancholic or not.
John IrvingHe had in abundance youthโs most dangerous qualities: optimism and relentlessness. He would risk everything he had to fly the plane that could carry the bomb within him.
John IrvingGrown-ups shouldnโt finish books theyโre not enjoying. When youโre no longer a child, and you no longer live at home, you donโt have to finish everything on your plate. One reward of leaving school is that you donโt have to finish books you donโt like.
John IrvingHere in St. Cloudโs,โ Dr. Larch wrote, โ I have been given the choice of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. It is my experience that practically everything is left up to chance much of the time; men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God โ we should seize those moments. There wonโt be may
John Irving