John Irving Quotes

When I love a novel I've read, I want to reread it - in part, to see how it was constructed.

John Irving

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Quotes to Explore

• The harder you work, the luckier you get.

  

  Gary Player
  • Work
  • You
  • Harder

• I was born in San Diego, and we moved to Los Angeles when I was seven. A couple of years later, I started acting!

  

  Danica McKellar
  • Couple
  • Acting
  • Born

• You can celebrate the female form in comfort. We left corsets behind in the dark ages, so why bring them back now?

  

  L'Wren Scott
  • Why
  • Dark
  • Comfort

• We cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone, but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true. And if we offend gravely enough against what we know to be true, as by failing badly enough to deal affectionately and responsibly with our land and our neighbors, truth will retaliate with ugliness, poverty, and disease.

  

  Wendell Berry
  • God
  • Truth
  • True

• Happy the man when he has not the defects of his qualities.

  

  Isaac D'Israeli
  • Happy
  • Man
  • Qualities

• Life is precious, and when someone dies it's an opportunity to realise how precious it is. My brother drowned when I was 17. He was 15. I think I grew from that. My father didn't. It really crushed him.

  

  Val Kilmer
  • Life
  • Father
  • Opportunity

• To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

  

  Edmund Burke
  • Men
  • Wise
  • Given

• People would pay money to work at CNN.

  

  Larry King
  • People
  • Work
  • Money

• Telecoms is a national business. There isn't a European market. There's no Telecom Italia in France.

  

  Xavier Niel
  • Business
  • Market
  • France

• As a writer given to the old formalities of rhyme and meter, I sometimes feel endangered these days.

  

  X. J. Kennedy
  • Sometimes
  • Feel
  • Old

• For many years, I hated nature. As a student, I refused to put a plant anywhere - a living plant, that is. Dead plants were OK.

  

  Zaha Hadid
  • Nature
  • Plant
  • Plants

• We all have hierarchies at work - even on set, the runner would never walk up to the director and ask for a cup of coffee.

  

  Laura Carmichael
  • Up
  • Work
  • Coffee

• I had to learn not to let anyone push me around, to be brave and to say things I knew might make people mad.

  

  Ina May Gaskin
  • People
  • Learn
  • Mad

• I understood from a very young age that school was important and that my parents were making great sacrifices for me. Every morning I saw my father get up and go to a job that he didn't really like. They came to France for the same reasons all immigrants move to another country - so their kids could have a better way of life.

  

  Omar Sy
  • Life
  • Up
  • Great

• A great city is that which has the greatest men and women.

  

  Walt Whitman
  • Great
  • Men
  • Women

• I quite like antiques. I like things that are old and the history they bring with them. I would rather fly to Morocco on an $800 ticket and buy a chair for $300 than spend $1,100 on one at Pottery Barn.

  

  Walton Goggins
  • History
  • Fly
  • Old

• The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

  

  Fidel Castro
  • World
  • Political
  • Military

• I aimlessly travel, meaning I have no agenda other than to get small in the world, be quiet and observe people.

  

  Walton Goggins
  • People
  • World
  • Small

• My first instrument was bass, and the first thing that I remember learning to play that was better than a few notes was Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain.' If you're the guy who penned that bass riff, then you should probably be in some sort of fantasy band.

  

  George Ezra
  • Remember
  • Guy
  • Learning

• I recognize that I'm probably the luckiest novelist in recent memory, because Sherman Alexie, a writer I greatly admire, raved about my book on 'The Colbert Report,' and then Mr. Colbert himself urged his viewers to buy it - on his show and on Twitter.

  

  Edan Lepucki
  • Book
  • Memory
  • Admire

• I think when I'm in love, I really am very good with calling, little faxes, and visiting and I really put a lot of effort into it. I'm really not the one that's not available because of work and I'm very sad when I actually leave.

  

  Franka Potente
  • Good
  • Work
  • Effort

• Look around at the countries of Europe, and you'll find that practically all of them have pasts that are just as tragic as Ireland's, yet the people seem able to find some creative way at moving into the future.

  

  Jennifer Johnston
  • People
  • Future
  • Moving

• When I love a novel I've read, I want to reread it - in part, to see how it was constructed.

  

  John Irving