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.

I always thought that you could do worse than find yourself dying in the company of a devoted former student.

…there was no more safety to be found in love than there was to be found in a virus.

You know, people think you have to be dumb to skip rope for 45 minutes. No, you have to be able to imagine something else. While you're skipping rope, you have to be able to see something else.

If you presume to love something, you must love the process of it much more than you love the finished product.

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.

Nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently.