Author: John Irving

Cites

• William Shakespeare (2)
  • IN: In One Person (2012) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented.
    FROM: Richard II, (1597), Play, UK
  • IN: Avenue of Mysteries (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Journeys end in lovers meeting.
    FROM: Twelfth Night, (1623), Play, UK
• Bob Dylan (1)
  • IN: Last Night in Twisted River (2009) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I had a job in the great north woods Working as a cook for a spell But I never did like it all that much And one day the ax just fell.
    FROM: "Tangled Up in Blue", (1975), Song, US
• Bible (1)
  • IN: A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
    FROM: Bible, Philippians 4:6, (100), Bible, NULL
• Frederick Buechner (1)
  • IN: A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Not the least of my problems is that I can hardly even imagine what kind of an experience a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience would be. Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.
    FROM: The Alphabet of Grace, (1970), Novel, US
• Leon Bloy (1)
  • IN: A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Any Christian who is not a hero is a pig.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, France
• John Hawkes (1)
  • IN: The 158-Pound Marriage (1973) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: There were four of us then, not merely two, and in our quaternion the vintage sap flowed freely, flowed and bled and boiled as it may never again.
    FROM: The Blood Oranges, (1971), Novel, US
• Ford Madox Ford (1)
  • IN: The 158-Pound Marriage (1973) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: It was a most amazing business, and I think that it would have been better in the eyes of God if they had all attempted to gouge out each other's eyes with carving knives. But they were "good people."
    FROM: The Good Soldier, (1915), Novel, UK
• E. B. White (1)
  • IN: The Fourth Hand (2001) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: ... a person who is looking for something doesn't travel very fast.
    FROM: Stuart Little, (1945), Novel, US
• William Maxwell (1)
  • IN: Until I Find You (2005) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: What we, or at any rate what I, refer to confidently as memory-- meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion-- is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many conflicting emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that they conform to this end. In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw.
    FROM: So Long, See You Tomorrow, (1980), Novel, US

Cited by

• Mike Greenberg (2)
  • IN: My Father's Wives (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Just accept as a fact that everyone of any emotional importance to you is related to everyone else of any emotional importance to you; these relationships need not extend to blood, of course, but the people who change your life emotionally -- all those people, from different places, from different times, spanning many wholly unrelated coincidences -- are nonetheless 'related'.
    FROM: Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, (1996), Book, US
  • IN: All You Could Ask For (2013) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a life.
    FROM: The World According to Garp, (1978), Novel, US
• Paul Fournel (1)
  • IN: Dear Reader (2012) Fiction, French
    EPIGRAPH: "No one knows what makes books sell." "I've heard that before," Garp said.
    FROM: The Word According to Garp, (1978), Novel, US
• John Lescroart (1)
  • IN: The Hunter (1953) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: [The Under Toad] was the color of bad weather. It was the size of an automobile.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US