John Irving Quotes - Page 13

Quotes about:

• I'm a worst-case scenario person. I'm only interested in a story because I kind of go, like a magnet, to the worst thing that can happen.

  John Irving

  Worst Case Scenario, Stories, Kind

  "Why novelist John Irving's latest protagonist is a fiction writer". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 3, 2015.

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• I'm not at all contemporary, not even modern, and the fact that I would be so quaintly attracted to that wrestling rule makes me, I suppose, seem all the more old-fashioned. I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

  John Irving

  Believe, Wrestling, Would Be

  Interview with Suzanne Herel, www.motherjones.com. May/June 1997.

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• 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

  Believe, Character, Plot

  Interview with Suzanne Herel, www.motherjones.com. May/June 1997.

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• I have always believed that, in a story, if something traumatic or calamitous enough happens to a kid at a formative age, that will make him or her the adult they become.

  John Irving

  Kids, Age, Adults

  "Why novelist John Irving's latest protagonist is a fiction writer". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 3, 2015.

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• You don't want to be ungenerous toward people who give you prizes, but it is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel. I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.

  John Irving

  Character, People, Giving

  Interview with Suzanne Herel, www.motherjones.com. May/June 1997.

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• I don't begin a novel until I have written, not just the last sentence, but usually, as a result thereof, many of the surrounding final paragraphs, so that in addition to knowing what happens, I know what the voice is.

  John Irving

  Voice, Knowing, Finals

  "Why novelist John Irving's latest protagonist is a fiction writer". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 3, 2015.

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• I'm not proselytizing my method. I don't believe that one writer should tell other writers how to write.

  John Irving

  Believe, Writing, Should

  "Why novelist John Irving's latest protagonist is a fiction writer". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 3, 2015.

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