He felt fortunate to be with Helen; she had her own ambitions and he could not manipulate here.
Vielleicht muss es im Leben eines Schriftstellers diesen Augenblick geben, in dem ein anderer Schriftsteller beschuldigt wird, seinen Beruf verfehlt zu haben.
Well, you finally got me,” Helen had whispered to him, tearfully, but Garp had sprawled there, on his back on the wrestling mat, wondering who had gotten whom.
You’d better leave your chromosomes at the door.
Keep passing the open windows.
If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.
If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn’t very vital.
My dear boy, please don’t put a label on me – don’t make me a category before you get to know me!
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.
Religious freedom should work two ways: we should be free to practice the religion of our choice, but we must also be free from having someone else’s religion practiced on us.
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.
You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.
Imagining something is better than remembering something.
Never confuse faith, or belief – of any kind – with something even remotely intellectual.
The more clearly one sees this world; the more one is obliged to pretend it does not exist.
It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
The building of the architecture of a novel – the craft of it – is something I never tire of.
Being afraid you’ll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.
All men are liars, said Roberta Muldoon, who knew this was true because she had once been a man.
The only way you get Americans to notice anything is to tax them or draft them or kill them.