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c7b1478
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I'm not afraid, but I'm very nervous.
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John Irving |
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aa53da6
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All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was it expecting people to exceed what they had just accomplished; it was simply feeling so complete.
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John Irving |
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c9a154a
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Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.
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cowardice
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John Irving |
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062deba
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Here is the trap you are in.... And it's not my trap--I haven't trapped you. 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. What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too. If abortion was legal, a woman would have a choice--and so would you. You could feel free not to do it becaus..
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women
freedom-of-choice
law
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John Irving |
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56fb531
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The more clearly one sees this world; the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist.
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John Irving |
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4ae0309
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I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes - toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings.
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John Irving |
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77c946f
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Sorrow floats.
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John Irving |
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8427b98
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Ever since the Christmas of '53, I have felt that the yuletide is a special hell for those families who have suffered any loss or who must admit to any imperfection; the so-called spirit of giving can be as greedy as receiving--Christmas is our time to be aware of what we lack, of who's not home.
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grief
loss
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John Irving |
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6ae2fba
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And in our Scripture class, Owen said, "IT'S TRUE THAT THE DISCIPLES ARE STUPID - THEY NEVER UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS MEANS, THEY'RE A BUNCH OF BUNGLERS, THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD AS MUCH AS THEY WANT TO BELIEVE, AND THEY EVEN BETRAY JESUS. THE POINT IS, GOD DOESN'T LOVE US BECAUSE WE'RE SMART OR BECAUSE WE'RE GOOD. WE'RE STUPID AND WE'RE BAD AND GOD LOVES US ANYWAY - JESUS ALREADY TOLD THE DUMB-SHIT DISCIPLES WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. "THE SO..
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John Irving |
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4cd0d40
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Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can't even remember having met you
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John Irving |
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4d0b359
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How we love to love things for other people; how we love to have other people love things through our eyes.
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John Irving |
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6ed37e9
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when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble.
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John Irving |
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041de7f
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Safer than we are." I told Franny. "Safer than love." "let me tell ya kid," Franny said to me, squeezing my hand. "Everything's safer than love."
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John Irving |
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e325b1b
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Owen Meany believed that "coincidence" was a stupid, shallow refuge sought by stupid, shallow people who were unable to accept the fact that their lives were shaped by a terrifying and awesome design - more powerful and unstoppable than the Yankee Flyer. (a train)"
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John Irving |
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88f85f7
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He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.
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John Irving |
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cbeb3e1
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And the thing about love," Wally said to Angel, "is that you can't force anyone. It's natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but you have to let everything happen to them. You can't interfere with people you love any more than you're supposed interfere with people you don't even know. And that's hard," he added, "because you often feel like interfering - you want to be the one who mak..
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John Irving |
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b21cf65
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O God -- please give him back! I shall keep asking You.
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prayer
religion
god
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John Irving |
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3db42fc
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Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.
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John Irving |
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681f200
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We will often do anything to pretend that nothing is on our minds.
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John Irving |
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a393e67
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I have learned that the consequences of our past actions are always interesting; I have learned to view the present with a forward-looking eye.
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John Irving |
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65aa379
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Oh FUCK the longings and agonies of youth.
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John Irving |
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b3d24df
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there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.
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John Irving |
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24ba7e8
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The history of a city was like the history of a family--there is closeness and even affection, but death eventually separates everyone from each other. It is only the vividness of memory that keeps the dead alive forever; a writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as our personal memories.
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John Irving |
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4b31f6f
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What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?
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John Irving |
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01a4d2c
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We are formed by what we desire
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John Irving |
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5069e28
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Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic."
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John Irving |
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20a5f86
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It was a sound like someone trying not to make a sound.
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john-irving
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John Irving |
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7d0401a
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It's a no-win argument - that business of what we're born with and what our environment does to us. And it's a boring argument, because it simplifies the mysteries that attend both our birth and our growth.
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John Irving |
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948591d
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He had heard her say, so many times, that a society that approved of making abortion illegal was a society that approved of violence against women; that making abortion illegal was simply a sanctimonious, self-righteous form of violence against women- it was just another way of legalizing violence against women, Nurse Caroline would say.
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freedom-of-choice
mysogyny
womens-rights
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John Irving |
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1798d11
|
THAT'S WHAT POWERFUL MEN DO TO THIS COUNTRY - IT'S A BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, BREATHLESS COUNTRY, AND POWERFUL MEN USE IT TO TREAT THEMSELVES TO A THRILL! THEY SAY THEY LOVE IT BUT THEY DON'T MEAN IT. THEY SAY THINGS TO MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR GOOD - THEY MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR MORAL...THE COUNTRY WANTS A SAVIOUR. THE COUNTRY IS A SUCKER FOR POWERFUL MEN WHO LOOK GOOD. WE THINK THEY'RE MORALISTS AND THEN THEY JUST USE US.
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John Irving |
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9a4f933
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If we live long enough, we become caricatures of ourselves.
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life
old-age
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John Irving |
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25a3ec6
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When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother's hand, his fingers could see in the dark.
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sons
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John Irving |
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d68f8d4
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If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough.
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John Irving |
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71ee021
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If you can't love crudeness, how can you truly love mankind?
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John Irving |
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4446900
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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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truth
sensationalism
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John Irving |
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2c389f8
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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.
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John Irving |
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f57d30e
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Owen meany who rarely wasted words and who had the conversation-stopping habit of dropping remarks like coins into a deep pool of water... remarks that sank, like truth, to the bottom of the pool where they would remain untouchable.
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John Irving |
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8e34c9b
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It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.
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John Irving |
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e2ea651
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And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.
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John Irving |
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e6e06fc
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Everybody dies ... The thing is, to have a life before we die.
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John Irving |
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b24be14
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Self-hatred is worse than loneliness.
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self-hatred
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John Irving |
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033b587
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In this dirty-minded world you are either somebody's wife or somebody's whore, or fast on your way to becoming one or the other.
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John Irving |
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f808d4b
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You can't learn everything you need to know legally.
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learning
life-lessons
legality
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John Irving |
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49433e3
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Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.
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John Irving |