In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases

Ambition robs you of your childhood. The moment you want to become an adult—in any way—something in your childhood dies.

We are formed by what we desire

If I had to be anything," he told her, "I'd probably be a socialist, but I don't want to be anything.

So we dream on. Thus we invent our lives. We give ourselves a sainted mother, we make our father a hero; and someone’s older brother and someone’s older sister – they become our heroes too. We invent what we love and what we fear. There is always a brave lost brother – and a little lost sister, too. We dream on and on: the best hotel, the perfect family, the resort life. And our dreams escape us almost as vividly as we can imagine them.

I have no respect for the right-to-life position, though I have every respect for an individual who says, "I could never have that procedure, I could never see a film or read a book about that procedure." It doesn't bother me if people feel that way.

When you legislate personal belief, you're in violation of freedom of religion.