John Irving Quotes

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.

I'm a writer who likes to be influenced.

I'm not such a fan of imagination. If you're alive to details, they oftentimes suggest a richer or deeper imaginative line than you would have imagined.

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

When writing 'Give and Take' and 'Originals,' the predominant emotion for me was curiosity.

As authors, we know that it is very difficult to unleash one's creativity.

I'm constantly creating and writing.

It is popular to believe that in order to see clearly one must believe nothing. This may work well enough if you are observing cells under a microscope. It will not work if you are writing fiction. For the fiction writer, to believe nothing is to see nothing.

I think inspiration is always around; it's just a question of whether or not you're noticing it.

All there is to writing is having ideas. To learn to write is to learn to have ideas.

The thing that inspires me most is reading and just observing the people around me. I think those are the two things that make me want to write.

Creative writing teachers should be purged until every last instructor who has uttered the words 'Write what you know' is confined to a labor camp. Please, talented scribblers, write what you don't. The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed The Iliad, how much combat do you think he saw?

I think my thing is that I try and pick up on things that other people have maybe not picked up on.

Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.

Writing is the basis of all, because creating something that didn't even exist before is like taking an empty canvass. It is a wonderful thing to make something out of nothing. You've got an empty page, you've got an idea, and then you start typing and that is the most thrilling thing of all. And then if it becomes a movie or something else that's a plus, but the original writing of it is what's very exciting.

Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!

[To become a poet] The most important thing is to pay attention. The next would probably be to read; it's so important to pay attention. It keeps you from being bored, and I might add it keeps you from being boorish.

A book comes and says, 'Write me.

Go where the pleasure is in your writing. Go where the pain is. Write the book you would like to read. Write the book you have been trying to find but have not found. But write. And remember, there are no rules for our profession. Ignore rules. Ignore what I say here if it doesn't help you. Do it your own way. Every writer knows fear and discouragement. Just write.The world is crying for new writing. It is crying for fresh and original voices and new characters and new stories. If you won't write the classics of tomorrow, well, we will not have any.

Literally, I see my writing as transcription - a transcription of what I see, hear, think, live.

It has no meaning, what do you use to write, the only thing that is important is: what do you write. A machine to write a book instead of a writer is not invented yet, and probably will never be.

As writers, it is our job not only to imagine, but to witness.

The writing part of my life never changes, because that's just when the inspiration comes.

A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.