A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects deep personal faith and the impact of a singular person on one's belief system.
In this profound statement, the speaker reveals how a specific individual, Owen Meany, despite his physical frailty and tragic circumstances, has profoundly shaped their spiritual beliefs. The speaker's memory of Owen is not limited to his physical attributes or the tragedies he was associated with; rather, it is rooted in the transformative influence he had on the speaker's faith and understanding of God. This connection underscores the idea that sometimes, the most significant impacts come from the most unexpected places and people.
Themes
FaithBeliefInfluenceMemorySpirituality
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a sermon to illustrate the power of faith in shaping one's beliefs.
More from John Irving
All quotes →No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
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It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them.
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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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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.
John IrvingRead
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
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