A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the comfort and normalcy found in familial relationships, along with the understanding that exaggerations within a family are accepted.
John Irving's quote reflects the deep sense of belonging and familiarity that comes with being part of a family. It suggests that the mundane interactions and even the over-the-top expressions of love or frustration are part of what makes a family unique and close-knit. Families share a bond that allows for understanding and acceptance of each other's quirks, making every interaction feel natural and loving.
Themes
FamilyNormalcyRelationshipsLoveExaggeration
In practice
Example use cases
During a family reunion, you might say this quote to express the warmth you feel.
More from John Irving
All quotes βNo 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.
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.
John IrvingRead
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 β toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings.
John IrvingRead
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