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Religious freedom should work two ways: we should be free to practice the religion of our choice, but we must also be free from having someone else's religion practiced on us.

John Irving

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John Irving
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 2
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Exeter
New Hampshire
John Winslow Irving
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Practice
Must
Religious
Work
Freedom
Practiced
Way
Free
Independence
Religion
Atheism
Else
Choice
Two
Ways
Someone
Choices

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The excitement of anticipation was *almost* equal to the thrill of lovemaking.
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And never forget, there is memory.
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There's no reason you should write any novel quickly.
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My brain is sending poison to my heart.
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Life is an X-rated soap opera.
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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
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I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
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You think you have a memory but it has you!
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Kids are beautiful, man. And they know much more than grownups think they know. Kids are just perfect people until grownups get their hands on them.
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Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents' own rule.
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Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story rumors don't care what's true.
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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.
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There is no straightforward negotiation with a four year old.
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Ever since the Christmas of 1953, I have felt that the yuletide is a special hell for those families who have suffered any loss or who must admit to any imperfection the so-called spirit of giving can be as greedy as receiving-Christmas is our time to be aware of what we lack, of who's not home.
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Owen Meany believed that “coincidence” was a stupid, shallow refuge sought by stupid, shallow people who were unable to accept the fact that their lives were shaped by a terrifying and awesome design – more powerful and unstoppable than the Yankee Flyer. (a train)
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He was too young to know that, in any novel with a reasonable amount of forethought, there were no coincidences.
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If you asked me one day, I might say, Well, sometimes I feel a little bit religious. If you asked me another day, I'd just say flat out, No.
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I don't want you to describe to me—not ever—what you were doing to that poor boy to make him sound like that but if you ever do it again, please cover his mouth with your hand.
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Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.
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