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I think now that is the nature of hymns-they make us want to repeat them...they are a part of any service, and often the only part of a funeral service, that makes us feel everything is acceptable.

John Irving

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John Irving
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 2
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Exeter
New Hampshire
John Winslow Irving
Thinking
Makes
Nature
Hymns
Part
Funeral
Everything
Repeat
Feel
Repeats
Feels
Acceptable
Make
Service
Think
Often

More quotes by John Irving

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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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In a school community, someone who reads a book for some secretive purpose, other than discussing it, is strange. What was she reading for?
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I take people very seriously. People are all I take seriously, in fact. Therefore, I have nothing but sympathy for how people behave - and nothing but laughter to console them with.
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I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.
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It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Before you can write anything, you have to notice something.
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I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.
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The excitement of anticipation was *almost* equal to the thrill of lovemaking.
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The object of war is to survive it.
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You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you know.
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Like many successful people he made good use of disappointments - responding to them with energy, with near-frenzied activity, rather than needing to recover from them.
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Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.
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I do know where I'm going and it's just a matter of finding the language to get there.
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My life is a reading list.
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You don't have to be in the habit of going to church to listen to such a literary minister you don't have to be a believer to be moved by Mr. Buechner's faith.
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If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.
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She sat keenly white and still among them, a witness to everything--maybe determining nothing, possibly judging it all.
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Just because you're sober, don't think you're a good driver, Cookie.
John Irving
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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
John Irving
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A woman half dressed seemed to have some power, but a man was simply not as handsome as when he was naked, and not as secure as when he was clothed.
John Irving
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The arrangements that couples make in order to maintain civility in the midst of their journey to divorce are often most elaborate when the professed top priority is to protect a child.
John Irving