Quote

Ambition robs you of your childhood. The moment you want to become an adult—in any way—something in your childhood dies.

John Irving

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John Irving
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 2
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Exeter
New Hampshire
John Winslow Irving
Adults
Childhood
Dies
Moment
Moments
Become
Robs
Something
Adult
Way
Ambition

More quotes by John Irving

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And never forget, there is memory.
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You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.
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And I find - I'm 63, and my capacity to be by myself and just spend time by myself hasn't diminished any. That's the necessary part of being a writer, you better like being alone.
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Rituals are comforting rituals combat loneliness.
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I think that was when the headmaster realized he had lost he realized then that he was finished. Because, what could he do? Was he going to tell us to stop praying? We kept our heads bowed and we kept praying. Even as awkward as he was, the Rev. Mr. Merrill had made it clear to us that there was no end to praying for Owen Meany.
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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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My dear boy, please don’t put a label on me—don’t make me a category before you get to know me!
John Irving
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But I felt certain that if the world would stop indulging wars and famines and other perils, it would be possible for human beings to embarrass each other to death. Our self-destruction might take a little longer that way, but I believe it would be no less complete.
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Just because you're sober, don't think you're a good driver, Cookie.
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The powerful wind swept his hair away from his face he leaned his chest into the wind, as if he stood on the deck of a ship heading into the wind, slicing through the waves of an ocean he’d not yet seen.
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I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.
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I'm a very old-fashioned novelist. I write 19th-century novels, where a lot of rules apply.
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Sell my old clothes - I'm off to heaven
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I have a very poor record at multiple choice questions.
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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.
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Writing is hard. I learned how to work hard from wrestling, not English courses.
John Irving
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I still believe in getting married in churches and baptizing children. I go through those motions.
John Irving
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Thus we try to keep our heroes alive hence we remember them.
John Irving
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In this world,” Franny once observed, “just as you’re trying to think of yourself as memorable, there is always someone who forgets that that they have met you.
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People only ask questions when they're ready to hear the answers.
John Irving