John Irving: Quotes about life

John Irving is American novelist and screenwriter. Explore interesting quotes on life.
John Irving: 194 quotes15 likes

“If you care about something you have to protect it – If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

“You know, everybody dies. My parents died. Your father died. Everybody dies. I'm going to die too. So will you. The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a life”

John Irving book The World According to Garp

Source: The World According to Garp

“My life is a reading list.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

“Life is serious but art is fun!”

John Irving

“… and so he tried to accept the ache in his heart as what Dr. Larch would call the common symptoms of normal life.”

John Irving book The Cider House Rules

Source: The Cider House Rules

“Half my life is an act of revision.”

John Irving

“All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was it expecting people to exceed what they had just accomplished; it was simply feeling so complete.”

John Irving book A Widow for One Year

Source: A Widow for One Year

“Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.”

John Irving book Until I Find You

Source: Until I Find You (2005), ch. 25, p. 493

“Ted Seabrooke, my wrestling coach, had a kind of Nietzschean effect on me in terms of not just his estimation of my limited abilities, but his decidedly philosophical stance about how to conduct your life, what you should do to compensate for your limitations. This was essential to me, both as a student—and not a good one—and as a wrestler who was not a natural athlete but who had found something he loved.”

John Irving

"John Irving Interviewed by Suzanne Herel." Mother Jones magazine, May/June 1997.