Tag Archives: John Irving

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin. John Irving

I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography. John Irving

I grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn't terribly painful. I thought some of the stories were neat; I liked some of the liturgy and some of the songs. John Irving

I had a particular affinity for wrestling, and it did have a lot to do with being small and being combative – and being angry. And when you're small and you don't back down, you get in a lot of fights. John Irving

Anybody can do research. The plotting of the novel, writing the ending before you write anything else, which I always do – I don't know that everybody can do that. That's the hard part. John Irving

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

If you presume to love something, you must love the process of it much more than you love the finished product. John Irving

I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules. John Irving

I don't think I've had a very interesting life, and I feel that is a great liberation. That gives me great freedom as a fiction writer. Nothing that happened holds any special tyranny over me. John Irving

I find screenplays easy to write, my novels being very visual. You see what people look like. The physical action is described. John Irving