Wherever Melony went, she would not be without guidance, she would not be without love, without faith; she had a good book with her. If only she kept reading it and reading it...
Only the chicken-lover will understand me. He will give me a kindly look, maybe mildly desirous. His eyes will tell me: You might look a lot better with some reddish-brown feathers.
Garp discovered that when you are writing something, everything seems related to everything else.
I realize that a writer’s business is setting fire to Piggy Sneed-and trying to save him-again and again; forever.
Ruth thought of a novel as a great, untidy house, a disorderly mansion; her job was to make the place fit to live in, to give it at least the semblance of order. Only when she wrote was she unafraid.
Once again, Jack reached for her hand. It was the only thing he knew how to do. As it would turn out, it was about the only thing he reall knew.
Of course, everyone is intolerant of something or someone.
And so this added consideration – that she never get pregnant – contributed to the moderation of their coupling, which was almost always managed under conditions harsh enough to win the approval of New England’s founding fathers.
Because I was a Wheelwright-and, therefore, a New England snob-I’d assumed that Phoenix was largely composed of Mormons and Baptists and Republicans;.
According to my mother, I was a fiction writer before I’d written any ficton, by wich she meant not only that I invented things, or made things up, but that I prefered this kind of fantasising or pure imagining to what other people generally liked – she meant reality, of course.
It’s Shakespearean, Bill; lots of the important stuff in Shakespeare happens offstage – you just hear about it.
You’re not like anyone else, Billy – that’s what’s the matter with you,” Donna said.
Like any good novel, it lulled him into an almost tranquil state of awareness before it jolted him – it caught him completely by surprise.
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.