The history of a city was like the history of a familyโthere is closeness and even affection, but death eventually separates everyone from each other. It is only the vividness of memory that keeps the dead alive forever; a writerโs job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as our personal memories.
John IrvingI always know more about the ending, even the aftermath to the ending, than I know about the beginning. And so there's a construction that works from back to front.
John IrvingBe serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don't mean that you can't also be funny, or have fun, but at the end of the day, stories are about what you lose.
John IrvingIt'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.
John IrvingI'm not at all contemporary, not even modern, and the fact that I would be so quaintly attracted to that wrestling rule makes me, I suppose, seem all the more old-fashioned. I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.
John IrvingAnyone can be sentimental about the nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you donโt believe in the resurrection, youโre not a believer." โIf you donโt believe in Easter,โ Owen Meany said. โDonโt kid yourselfโDonโt call yourself a Christian.
John Irving