When I was still in prep school - 14, 15 - I started keeping notebooks, journals. I started writing, almost like landscape drawing or life drawing. I never kept a diary, I never wrote about my day and what happened to me, but I described things. John Irving daydiarydraw share on social
You can't learn everything you need to know legally. John Irving learnlegally Change image and share on social
I suppose I try to look for those things where the world turns on you. It's every automobile accident, every accident at a party, you're having a good time until suddenly you're not. John Irving accidentautomobilegood Change image and share on social
Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you! John Irving fileforgethide 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
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. John Irving beginconnectionimportant share on social
I think the sport of wrestling, which I became involved with at the age of 14... I competed until I was 34, kind of old for a contact sport. I coached the sport until I was 47. I think the discipline of wrestling has given me the discipline I have to write. John Irving agecoachcompete 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
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
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
