John Irving Quotes
You don't want to be ungenerous toward people who give you prizes, but it is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel. I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.
Quotes to Explore
-
Thousands of years and many civilizations have defined a marriage as the union between one man and one woman. With few exceptions, those civilizations that did not follow that perished.
-
Writers have an opinion about the world and offer arguments about the world. They should offer contemplation.
-
I am going to change the world, and I'm talking to everybody in the possible world that I can get to that can help me to do that.
-
Gun owners and non-gun owners alike agree on expanding background checks, making gun trafficking a serious crime with stiff penalties, making it illegal for all stalkers and all domestic abusers to buy guns, and expanding mental health resources so the mentally ill find it easier to receive treatment than to buy firearms.
-
It is the original idea that is unique, not the object itself.
-
What about Broadway? Yes, I'm involved with a new musical based on 'The Adams Family.'
-
I wrote The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God in five hours, but I had it all planned out. It isn't poetry and it does not pretend to be, but it does what it sets out to do.
-
The first time I worked with colors was by making these mosaics of Pantone swatches. They end up being very large pictures, and I photographed with a very large camera - an 8x10 camera. So you can see the surface of every single swatch - like in this picture of Chuck Close. And you have to walk very far to be able to see it.
-
There was a long time where I was an 'artist' in quotes, who had no money. But I guess back then I also never had a girlfriend.
-
They all hope I will go broke and I wouldn't like to cause them displeasure.
-
Possessions. The very word is potent - suggestive as it is of ownership both material and erotic. To possess. Possession. Possessed.
-
The hijab is a symbol that we wear on our heads, but I want people to know that it is my choice. I'm doing it because I want to do it. I wanted people to see that you could still be really cute and modest at the same time.
-
If India has to achieve exponential growth, it would have to be on the back of strong growth in the manufacturing sector.
-
When I was a kid, 'Blade Runner' was my favorite movie. I remember seeing that when I was a little boy with my dad.
-
As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together.
-
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
-
Conflict is the beginning of consciousness.
-
People are not lazy, they simply have impotent goals..that is..goals that do not inspire them.
-
I became inspired while I was listening to music on the radio. I felt the music in my head sounded better, so I turned off the radio and scribbled it down on a piece of paper. I remember that it was in May. People liked that song. They said it was beautiful. I felt overjoyed.
-
When our markets work, people throughout our economy benefit - Americans seeking to buy a car or buy a home, families borrowing to pay for college, innovators borrowing on the strength of a good idea for a new product or technology, and businesses financing investments that create new jobs.
-
Just because there are people who violate rules, behave illegally and so on, it does not mean that everybody is like that. On the contrary, if you watch certain judges, you observe that they honestly try to implement what they believe the Constitution says and just put it into effect.
-
I am going to be contradictory to myself many times for the simple reason that I am trying to bring all the religions to a higher synthesis. Different approaches have to be joined together. I am creating an orchestra.
-
You don't want to be ungenerous toward people who give you prizes, but it is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel. I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.
