A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that true complexity and depth can be found in individuals who may not initially seem sympathetic or relatable.
John Irving suggests that genuine understanding and connection often lie beyond first impressions. He expresses an attraction to individuals whose stories may not elicit immediate sympathy, underlining the importance of recognizing the underlying struggles and nuances within people that may not be evident at first glance.
Themes
SympathyUnderstandingComplexityDepthPeople
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about character development in literature, this quote could illustrate the attraction to flawed protagonists.
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 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 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.
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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
John IrvingRead
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