Famous John Irving Quotes

  • It’s because even a good man can’t always be right, that we need … rules. – John Irving

    It’s because even a good man can’t always be right, that we need … rules.– John Irving

  • Self-hatred is worse than loneliness. – John Irving

    Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.– John Irving

  • Garp didn’t want a daughter because of men. Because of bad men, certainly; but even, he thought, because of men like me. – John Irving

    Garp didn’t want a daughter because of men. Because of bad men, certainly; but even, he thought, because of men like me.– John Irving

  • but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive. – John Irving

    but good friends are nothing to each other if they are not supportive.– John Irving

  • You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them. – John Irving

    You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them.– John Irving

  • What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses. – John Irving

    What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses.– John Irving

  • Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy. – John Irving

    Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.– John Irving

  • This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on. – John Irving

    This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on.– John Irving

  • Half my life is an act of revision. – John Irving

    Half my life is an act of revision.– John Irving

  • Life is serious but art is fun! – John Irving

    Life is serious but art is fun!– John Irving