John Irving Quotes

I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.

John Irving

• Society

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• If al Qaeda or any other enemy of our country manages to create a situation or explode a bomb or murder or incapacitate large numbers of our people, we cannot wait for 7 weeks of a special election in order to deal with that.

  

  Dana Rohrabacher
  • People
  • Country
  • Enemy

• To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.

  

  Walt Whitman
  • Real
  • Bad
  • Artist

• The guitar is such an incredible instrument; it plays classical, flamenco, jazz, country, bluegrass, rock, acid, blues. You'll never see a clarinet playing Black Sabbath. But you will see a guitar in a clarinet band playing rhythm. It is the most popular instrument in the world; it is the one everybody loves.

  

  Randy Bachman The Guess Who
  • World
  • Country
  • Black

• Think what evil creeps liberals would be if their plans to enfeeble the individual, exhaust the economy, impede the rule of law, and cripple national defense were guided by a coherent ideology instead of smug ignorance.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Law
  • Evil
  • Ignorance

• You can wear anything as long as you put a nice pair of shoes with it.

  

  Taylor Momsen
  • Long
  • You
  • Nice

• There are so many different criteria for my collecting, and I have to confess that the goalposts do shift. But obviously, with my background, I am particularly drawn to things that have been documented in contemporary magazines.

  

  Hamish Bowles
  • Magazines
  • Collecting
  • Shift

• Knowing policy does help make the gossip more understandable.

  

  Tabitha Soren
  • Help
  • Knowing
  • Gossip

• I redefined how I ate and exercised and have continued to keep that up because it feels great.

  

  Beck Bennett
  • Up
  • Great
  • Because

• My parents are divorced, and seeing that was really painful for me. Really painful for me. But that's also a big part of why I'm intrigued by the dynamics between people – because I was close to something that fell apart.

  

  Banks
  • People
  • Parents
  • Painful

• Most filmmaking is about shaking hands and just starting.

  

  Abel Ferrara
  • Hands
  • Starting
  • Filmmaking

• Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • Good
  • Original
  • Both

• In recent years, I've been writing because I'm fortunate enough to work in the world of food television, to travel and taste and learn about cooking from the best chefs in the business.

  

  Ted Allen
  • World
  • Work
  • Writing

• I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything... at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.

  

  Dan Millman
  • Time
  • Same
  • Motivational

• There's a reason why every human society has fiction. It teaches us how to be 'good', to behave in a way that is for the benefit of the whole community.

  

  Orson Scott Card
  • Good
  • Why
  • Society

• The mind itself is of the form of all, i.e., of soul, God and world; when it becomes of the form of the Self through knowledge, there is release, which is of the nature of Brahman: this is the teaching.

  

  Ramana Maharshi
  • World
  • God
  • Mind

• Continuous persecution of widows and orphans is a crime. Even the Bible says there is a specific place in hell for those who oppress widows.

  

  Imelda Marcos
  • Bible
  • Hell
  • Crime

• It's like having astronomy without knowing where the stars are.

  

  E. O. Wilson
  • Stars
  • Knowing
  • Astronomy

• I watch a lot of football.

  

  Paolo Sorrentino
  • Football
  • Watch
  • Lot

• I wanted to be the most famous. And it wasn't until I hung out with Justin Bieber that the whole thing got demystified. The mystique of it was gone.

  

  Mike Posner
  • Famous

• I just want to help other women achieve as much as they can in society without restraints being imposed on us. It's the most natural and normal thing to want to defend your rights to equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and everything that comes with that.

  

  Amy Poehler
  • Work
  • Women
  • Help

• Government is only a scaffolding to build man; a temporary convenience, to secure order and justice, to vanish as we ascend into unison with ideas; the garment society wears to be refitted for larger life, or left behind for the next arrival in the cradle. The elements of growth and original sovereignty forever inhere in the people, and no government can be perpetual, any more than a coat can be perpetual.

  

  Ezra Heywood
  • Society
  • Man
  • Government

• They have most satisfaction in themselves, and consequently the sweetest relish of their creature comforts.

  

  Matthew Henry

• I don't know really, it doesn't feel like it has changed to me but I think to have to move with the times. Try out different areas and not get stuck in 1978.

  

  Jo Brand
  • Different

• I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.

  

  John Irving
  • Society