Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.

In the world according to her father, Jenny Garp knew, we must have energy. Her famous grandmother, Jenny Fields, once thought of us as Externals, Vital Organs, Absentees, and Goners. But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.

There's no reason you shouldn't, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly.

What was even more germane was my study of the history of religion. It was one of the few things in school I was fascinated by.

It seems to me that a great deal of this type of censorship has to do with absolving parents of responsibility - parents who just plop their kids in front of the television and leave them there hour upon hour.

I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography.

The main character and the most important character are not always the same person - you have to know the difference.