There's no reason you shouldn't, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly. John Irving awareconstantlynecessity Change image and share on social
No adult in my family would ever tell me anything about who my father was. I knew from an older cousin - only four years older than I am - everything, or what little I could discover about him. John Irving adultcousindiscover Change image and share on social
You know, people think you have to be dumb to skip rope for 45 minutes. No, you have to be able to imagine something else. While you're skipping rope, you have to be able to see something else. John Irving dumbimagineminute Change image and share on social
To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense. John Irving breadexaggerationfamily Change image and share on social
I never know when I finish the novel I am writing which will be the next novel out of the station. John Irving finishstationwrite Change image and share on social
'The Fourth Hand' was a novel that came from twenty years of screenwriting concurrently with whatever novel I'm writing. John Irving concurrentlyfourthhand Change image and share on social
The principal event of my childhood was that no adult in my family would tell me who my father was. John Irving adultchildhoodevent Change image and share on social
I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better than something you might find in the newspaper. And I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it. John Irving capablecharactercomplicate share on social
When I feel like being a director, I write a novel. John Irving directorfeelwrite Change image and share on social
'Great Expectations' was an important novel in my adolescence. It was very much one of those emblematic novels that made me wish I could write like that. It helped that my models as a writer were dead over a hundred years before I began to write. John Irving adolescencebegindead share on social
