John Irving Quotes
I never know when I finish the novel I am writing which will be the next novel out of the station.
Quotes to Explore
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I still have a fear of theater. I don't know if I will manage that. I used to do it. I developed a bit of a phobia. It's not a real phobia. I can go in and watch.
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In the '80 Olympics... people expected me to win. I was good enough to win, and I made a mistake and ended up second, which is pretty good, too.
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Fashion is a language, for sure, and it is a reflection of society.
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These 'Sports Illustrated' people, they know how to hold a secret.
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They do not understand Islam, and I think that is one area where perhaps I hope one day I will play a role in actually making people understand what we perceive Islam to be.
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I have worked hard and learnt that I have to make a decision - whether I am going to conform and protect myself or not. I chose not to.
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The more you are getting older, you lose a little something. Of course there is another advantage, because of your long experience you can use it.
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I have never thought of a full-fledged career in Bollywood because boxing has never left my mind. But you never know.
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I never met a stripe I didn't like.
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Israel has a security concern involving geography. But geography does not have the same value it did in 1967.
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Fortuitous circumstances constitute the moulds that shape the majority of human lives, and the hasty impress of an accident is too often regarded as the relentless decree of all ordaining fate.
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Frankly speaking, it's only the script that matters to me the most. If I like the script, then I just commit to myself and go ahead with it. But I also look at the commitment and confidence of the director of the film because it's him who will shape the film.
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'Wicked' gave us a story that 'The Wizard of Oz' did not. Two sides to every story.
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I wasn't a very good student in elementary school and had a hard time with reading and writing.
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Personal responsibility is not only recognizing the errors of our ways. Personal responsibility lies in our willingness and ability to correct those errors individually and collectively.
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One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing. I did that with 'World's Fair,' as with all of them. The inventions of the book come as discoveries.
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Girls shouldn't drink because their bodies are not made for drinking and smoking.
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I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.
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Every man is his own ancestor, and every man is his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past.
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Every piece of marble has a statue in it waiting to be released by a person of sufficient skill to chip away the unnecessary parts. Just as the sculptor is to the marble, so is education to the soul. It releases it. For only educated people are free people. You cannot create a statue by smashing the marble with a hammer, and you cannot by the force of arms release the spirit or the soul of people.
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The best thing about writing speculative fiction is the opportunity to satirize the whole wide world. The America in 'A Better World' isn't ours, but it's pretty close, so I could lampoon everything from partisan politics to the cult of celebrity to our general disaffection. To me, all that is the point.
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I'm a tattoo artist, and I went to school to paint, and I started writing and getting published.
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I love my job so much, and not everyone can say that and I recognize how lucky that is.
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I never know when I finish the novel I am writing which will be the next novel out of the station.
