I had been a student in Vienna, and one of the neat little things I had found out was about that zoo. It was a good debut novel for me to have published. I was 26 or 27 when it was published. I already had a kid and would soon have a second.
John IrvingKnow the story before you fall in love with your first sentence. If you donโt know the story before you begin the story, what kind of a storyteller are you? Just an ordinary kind, just a mediocre kind โ making it up as you go along, like a common liar.
John IrvingLife forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.
John IrvingI have a process that I seem to always, to some degree, as a writer, adhere to, but I certainly have never imposed the way I write a novel on my students. When I had students, I never said, "You should never start writing a novel until you have the last sentence." I never did that, and I wouldn't do it now, but people now seem so interested in the process [of writing fiction] that I have to constantly make it clear when I describe mine that I'm not being prescriptive. I'm not proselytizing.
John Irving