John Irving Quotes
And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it's my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you.
Quotes to Explore
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My memory of my home was that it was very happy, and that there was more fun and life there than there was anywhere else.
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Usually, you lose interest in a story beyond a certain point. But with 'Highway,' there was something very subtle, yet something very influential. I intended 'Highway' to be the first film that I ever made. Didn't happen.
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We've learned a lot about how information needs to flow effectively amongst a group of people. They need to be fed information, and it needs to be on this constant conveyor belt.
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What am I responsible for? Who am I responsible to? Everybody? How come when Archie Bunker nailed everybody, it was funny - but when I do it, it's not?
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If you can achieve winning a league championship, that, to me, is the full test of the team and management because it is over the full season and you have a lot of problems you have to overcome.
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Iggy Pop has a voice that's somehow simultaneously self-mocking, wild, precise, amused, righteous, cool, contained and bold. I don't know how he does what he does.
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I think that black people, to a degree, need to have a certain level of dexterity. If we want to be at the highest level of whatever our field is, we have to be able to navigate both worlds. We all just know that you gotta be able to put that suit on and have a conversation with people that don't look like you or your family.
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If there were only one truth, you couldn't paint a hundred canvases on the same theme.
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The 20th century was a test bed for big ideas - fascism, communism, the atomic bomb.
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In the process of evolution, the body lasts for some time and then will take other body and take other body and take other body until the final redemption from diversity is transcended.
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Defendants are being evaluated based on numerical grid without any aggravating circumstances being considered. The effect has been to transfer the disparity from the judge to the prosecutor allowing for a great deal of leeway on indictments.
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I really believe you can predict when someone has a great attitude, a real well of talent.
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I don't harp on the negative because if you do, then there's no progression. There's no forward movement. You got to always look on the bright side of things, and we are in control. Like, you have control over the choices you make.
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I am a just man.
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I was from a tough neighborhood, and we didn't have a lot of money, but my dad worked hard, and my mom is good at budgeting things. That made me appreciate things.
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Growing up, I'd just be at home, playing tennis, spending my allowance on an ice-cream truck.
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It simply isn't acceptable for the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon and others, which amass data by the terabyte, to say, 'Don't worry, your information's safe with us, as all sorts of rules protect you' - when all evidence suggests otherwise.
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Skateboarding was the only thing I was ever good at. Growing up, I was doing that from, like, dusk till dawn.
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My M.O. is just do what you do and don't feel like you have to make apologies for it. I'm sure there will come a point when I have to apologize for something, but not yet.
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Citizens in a democracy need diverse sources of news and information.
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As far as getting work, no one thought I spoke English. It was absolutely ridiculous. I'd show up at a meeting and they'd be like, 'Oh my God, you speak English! That's so cool.' They didn't really know what to do with me.
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I leave a $100 bill and a note to the housekeeper at every hotel I've ever been in. It's important to write that they're recognized and appreciated.
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We're in a strange state in our world where we sort of have that belief - and I have it too - that if it's written down there's got to be some truth in it. We haven't quite got to the spot where you go: "Well, it doesn't necessarily mean it's true." It could actually be completely made up and made to look very nice. So, we have to get to the point where scandal and those kinds of things are less and less important because otherwise we won't have anyone willing to run as politicians.
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And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it's my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you.
