Quote of the Day (John Irving, on a Writer’s Obsessions)

“The loss of innocence in childhood, or the absent parent, and those sexual outsiders or misfits I am repeatedly attracted to in my fiction—well, I do not choose to write about these things. These things obsess me; these things choose me. You don't get to pick the nightmare that wakes you up at 4 a.m.—it comes looking for you, again and again.”—John Irving, “The ‘Cider House’ Writing Rules,” The Wall Street Journal, May 5-6, 2012