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" One of the humbling things about having written more than one novel is the sense that every time you begin, that new empty page does not know who you are. "
John Irving
Empty
New
Page
Related Quotes:
" 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
Interesting
Imagination
World
" 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
Better
Business
Skin
" I'm not a twentieth-century novelist, I'm not modern, and certainly not postmodern. I follow the form of the nineteenth-century novel; that was the century that produced the models of the form. I'm old-fashioned, a storyteller. I'm not an analyst, and I'm not an intellectual. "
John Irving
Follow
Analyst
Modern
" I'm not writing non-fiction. I don't feel anything about me as a kid was unique. Except that I had more interest in being alone and using my imagination. "
John Irving
Being Alone
Alone
Imagination
" I write very quickly; I rewrite very slowly. It takes me nearly as long to rewrite a book as it does to get the first draft. I can write more quickly than I can read. "
John Irving
Me
I Can
Draft
" 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
Old
Think
Age
" More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn't say I have a talent that's special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina. "
John Irving
Say
My Life
Talent
" If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. "
John Irving
Love
You
Courage
" If you're still wondering about details - how am I going to get these two to meet, or whatever - when you're writing, you can't pay proper attention to the sentences themselves. "
John Irving
Attention
Details
Meet
" 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
Forget
You
Think
" I wasn't afraid of anything until I had a kid. Then I was terrified because immediately I could imagine a hundred ways in which I could not protect him. "
John Irving
Ways
Afraid
Protect
" My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the trophies, you were in it for the wrong reasons. "
John Irving
Used
Say
Old
" There's a lot of ignorance about how long it takes to write a novel. There's a lot of ignorance about how long a novel is in your head before you start to write it. "
John Irving
You
Long
Ignorance
" I don't really set out to explore grand themes. I set out to tell a story. And one I have to be able to imagine right through. "
John Irving
Explore
Story
Tell
" I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules. "
John Irving
Consequences
Rules
Behavior
" I do know where I'm going and it's just a matter of finding the language to get there. "
John Irving
Going
Matter
Language
" 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
Story
Time
" As many times as I've seen 'The Merchant of Venice,' I always take Shylock's side. For all the hatred that guy is shown, he has a reason to hate in return. He's treated cruelly. And it's tragic that he learns to be intolerant because of what others do to him. "
John Irving
Hate
Hatred
Others
" 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
Thought
Church
Family
" I get up early. I like to read a little before anyone but the dog is up. I also like to read at night, not in bed but just before I go to bed. "
John Irving
Dog
Early
Go
" Half my life is an act of revision. "
John Irving
Half
Act
Revision
" You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. "
John Irving
Get
You
Stay
" When I love a novel I've read, I want to reread it - in part, to see how it was constructed. "
John Irving
Want
Love
Novel
" There's no reason you should write any novel quickly. "
John Irving
Write
Reason
You
" I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand. "
John Irving
Written
Always
Drafts
" 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
Everything
I Am
Father
" I think better of our behaviour as individuals than I do when we see ourselves as members of a group. It's when people start forming groups that we have to watch our backs. "
John Irving
Group
Better
People
" If you presume to love something, you must love the process of it much more than you love the finished product. "
John Irving
More
Product
Process
" 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
Me
Connections
Story
" 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
Relationship
You
Character