John Irving Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Let's judge a man on what he's done.
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I've read quite a few readers' reviews of my book on Amazon, saying, 'Ah, he criticises the free market, he advocates central planning.' I don't do that for a minute! But this is our black and white, dichotomous way of thinking - which has really been harmful.
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We do high heels, and people know us for that, but the idea of wearing a flat from day to night feels special.
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There is an expression now that is commonly used about these so-called internal conflicts which are not really internal, because they have connections to the outside world.
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I am a very loyal man and always keep my promises when I commit to something.
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It fits my ADD, so that's good. Because I really can't focus on anything for too long. And 'Top Gear's really the easiest thing to do because I'm with my pals. It's like coming home with my friends. We're having so much fun making the show.
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Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
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More and more, we're used to taking things in through the eyes rather than through the ears, and opera is more of a spectacle.
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When I was a child, I did always feel that people were hiding things, and that they weren't expressing their true feelings. When adults are too complicated, and cover their emotions with layers of well-intentioned subterfuge, the child isn't seeing reality clearly enough and gets upset.
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Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
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If we want to talk about freedom, we must mean freedom for others as well as ourselves, and we must mean freedom for everyone inside our frontiers as well as outside.
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On stage, you can use your emotions. It's the place where you can channel them. They have a purpose.
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I can't live without activity; I can't be sedentary.
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Of course, relative citation frequencies are no measure of relative importance. Who has not aspired to write a paper so fundamental that very soon it is known to everyone and cited by no one?
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I simply wanted to get through college as quickly as humanly possible. I had no interest in extracurricular activities or anything that required me to be social. I was allergic to people.
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I guess the reality is, everybody today has so many gadgets.
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It's quite fun to mess with the human voice. It's quite special in the sense that the voice is the #1 instrument that we can connect with; it doesn't sound too alien. I think that's the key is to find the line between sounding human and sounding robotic. That's an area that I like to explore a lot.
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I don't think I'd like to be a different person. But I do sometimes see my cats lolling about and think it would be nice to be one of them.
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It breaks my heart that my father never knew my children. He should have been around for another 25 years.
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If we dig deep in our history and remember that we are not descendants from fearful people, we proclaim ourselves indeed as we are the defenders of freedom wherever it continues to exist in the world.
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Human nature is not simple and any classification that roughly divides men into good and bad, superior and inferior, slave and free, is and must be ludicrously untrue and universally dangerous as a permanent exhaustive classification.
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When the purse strings tighten up at museums, the institutions usually cut back and cancel shows. That's exactly the wrong reaction. In fact, now is a good time for them to loosen up - a chance to breathe and experiment a little - and go for the juicy solution lurking in their own basements.
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Humanity could only have survived and flourished if it held social and personal values that transcended the urges of the individual, embodying selfish desires - and these stem from the sense of a transcendent good.
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Good habits are worth being fanatical about.
