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Quote by John Irving

“The concept of writing a novel and not knowing where it's going - I don't know how to do that. Novels are plot- and character-driven, so if I don't know what becomes of people, how can I know where it should begin?”

Quote by John Irving

Author

John Irving is an American novelist known for his intricate narrative structures and profound character development. His works often explore themes of family, love, morality, and identity, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

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“The book works better if I know everything I can about the ending. Not just what happens, but how it happens and what the language is; not just the last sentence, but enough of the sentences surrounding that last sentence to know what the tone of voice is. I imagined it as something almost musical. Then you are writing toward something; you know the sound of your voice at the end of the story. That's how you want to sound in those final sentences: the degree that it is uplifting or not, the degree that it is melancholic or not.”

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Author:John Irving

“For most of my life, when I've finished the book I'm writing, there've always been as many as two or three other novels waiting to be written next. And the decision driving which one of them it should be was never based on how long it had waited or how many accumulated pages of notes I had.”

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Author:John Irving

“When writing a novel, I'm not smart enough to know how to foreshadow something if I don't know what it is.”

Ifs Knows Writing Enough Novel Know How Smart

Author:John Irving

“The ability to see the future can be a burden, and the younger you are and the more isolated you feel, maybe the more of a burden it is.”

Feels Ability Burden Isolated Ability To See

Author:John Irving

“I've always been interested in miracles, or the miraculous of the unexplained. I don't scoff at what makes people believe or want to believe. I think I understand the tremendous attraction of the mysteries of the church to the same degree that I understand and appreciate the frustration people feel, especially believers, with the human rule-making arm of the church, with the not-miraculous part of the church - any church.”

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Author:John Irving

“In an episodic treatment, such as a teleplay is, you have the ability to do what you can do in a novel, which is flash back and flash forward in the same instant, in the same scene, in the same voice.”

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Author:John Irving

“I always thought that you could do worse than find yourself dying in the company of a devoted former student.”

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Author:John Irving

“All the unimaginative assholes in the world who imagine that Shakespeare couldn't have written Shakespeare because it was impossible from what we know about Shakespeare of Stratford that such a man would have had the experience to imagine such things - well, this denies the very thing that separates Shakespeare from almost every other writer in the world: an imagination that is untouchable and nonstop.”

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Author:John Irving

“I've always been slow but I'm even slower now. I'm more into the waiting, or I guess I'm more patient about the waiting.”

Waiting Patient

Author:John Irving

“Seasteaders bring a Silicon Valley sensibility to the problem of governments not innovating sufficiently. Innovators are held back and stymied by existing regulations, and we want to give them 21st century regulations on start-up governments.”

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Author:Joe Quirk