Donโt you understand?โ he would say, โYou imagine the story better than I remember it.
John IrvingI'm not typing. I write only by longhand. I've always written first drafts by hand and then once I was into a second or third draft I wrote insert pages on a typewriter. But I got rid of all my typewriters about three or four novels ago and now I do everything by hand. I write by hand because it makes me go slow and going slow is what I like.
John IrvingDan suggested to Owen and me that we were better off to not involve ourselves with Hester. How true! But how we wanted to be involved in the thrilling real-life sleaziness that we suspected Hester was in the thick-of. We were in a phase, through television and the movies, of living only vicariously. Even faintly sordid silliness excited us if it put us in contact with love.
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 IrvingYou bet I write disaster fiction. We have compiled a disastrous record on this planet, a record of stupidity and absurdity and self-abuse and self-aggrandizement and self-deception and pompousness and self-righteousness and cruelty and indifference beyond what any other species has demonstrated the capacity for, which is the capacity for all the above.
John Irving