John Irving

Sigmund Freud was a novelist with a scientific background. He just didn't know he was a novelist. All those damn psychiatrists after him, they didn't know he was a novelist either. ↗

— John Irving

#background #damn #either #freud #him

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

#adult #am #anything #could #cousin

I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand. ↗

— John Irving

#drafts #first #i #preferred #writing

There's no reason you should write any novel quickly. ↗

— John Irving

#no reason #novel #quickly #reason #should

I do know where I'm going and it's just a matter of finding the language to get there. ↗

— John Irving

#get #going #i #i do #just

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

— John Irving

#finished product #love #more #much #must

You know, people think you have to be dumb to skip rope for 45 minutes. No, you have to be able to imagine something else. While you're skipping rope, you have to be able to see something else. ↗

— John Irving

#dumb #else #imagine #know #minutes

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties. ↗

— John Irving

#casualties #i #i write #keep #looking

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

#match #old #reasons #say #trophies

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

#i #kind #life #maybe #me