A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
Death, it seems," Garp wrote, "does not like to wait until we are prepared for it. Death is indulgent and enjoys, when it can, a flair for the dramatic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Death often arrives unexpectedly and can be dramatic in nature.
In this quote, John Irving reflects on the unpredictable nature of death, suggesting that it often comes at inopportune times, catching us off guard. He personifies death as indulgent and theatrical, indicating that it tends to intrude into our lives with little regard for our readiness, which emphasizes the importance of cherishing life and the moments we have.
Themes
DeathPreparednessLifeUnpredictabilityDrama
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a eulogy to highlight the unexpected nature of death.
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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