When I finally write the first sentence, I want to know everything that happens, so that I am not inventing the story as I write it - rather, I am remembering a story that has already happened.
John Irvingbut writers, Garp knew, were just observers - good and ruthless imitators of human behavior.
John IrvingHere is the trap you are in.... And it's not my trapโI haven't trapped you. Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and youโbecause you know how to perform themโhave no choice, either. What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too. If abortion was legal, a woman would have a choiceโand so would you. You could feel free not to do it because someone else would. But the way it is, you're trapped. Women are trapped. Women are victims, and so are you.
John IrvingI donโt have to say to you or anyone in our WRESTLING community that we are a small world unto ourselves and there is often a big difference in how much we love and understand each other and how little weโre understood or appreciated by people who spend their weekends watching basketball.
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 Irving