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Wrestling was my first success, the first thing that confirmed that I could be good at anything. Devoting yourself to wrestling, or tennis, or skiing, or dance, or to a musical instrument is a longing to be disciplined for a purpose.

John Irving

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John Irving
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 2
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Exeter
New Hampshire
John Winslow Irving
Dance
Skiing
Purpose
Disciplined
Success
Wrestling
Anything
Instrument
Firsts
Tennis
First
Longing
Thing
Instruments
Devoting
Good
Musical
Confirmed

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Lilly was not crazy. She left a serious suicide note. 'Sorry,' said the note. 'Just not big enough.
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All men are liars, said Roberta Muldoon, who knew this was true because she had once been a man.
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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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Almost everyone is dying to leave home, eventually and almost everyone needs to.
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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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Rituals are comforting rituals combat loneliness.
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Half my life is an act of revision.
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I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand.
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The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.
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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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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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Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you-because you know how to perform them-have no choice, either
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It was a sound like someone trying not to make a sound.
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Whereas she wished more of the population were better educated, she also believed that education was largely wasted on the majority of the people she met.
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If you feel strongly about people having abortions, don't have one.
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You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.
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The unspoken factor is love. The reason I can work so hard at my writing is that it's not work for me.
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It's my experience that very few writers, young or old, are really seeking advice when they give out their work to be read. They want support they want someone to say, Good job.
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