John Irving

Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel.

I do know where I'm going and it's just a matter of finding the language to get there.

I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.

Sigmund Freud was a novelist with a scientific background. He just didn't know he was a novelist. All those damn psychiatrists after him, they didn't know he was a novelist either.

My old coach used to say that if you were in it for the match, if you were in it for the trophies, you were in it for the wrong reasons.

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.