Quote of the Day (John Irving, on Free Time and Writing)

“The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.” —American novelist and screenwriter John Irving quoted by R.Z. Sheppard, “Life into Art: Novelist John Irving,” Time Magazine, Aug. 31, 1981

The image accompanying this post, John Irving in the Netherlands, was taken on May 2, 1989, by Rob Bogaerts (ANEFO).

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