And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first… — John Irving

And I don't want to begin something, I don't want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it's my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you.

John IrvingNovelist · American · b. 1942

More from John Irving

Placing on writers the responsibility to represent a culture is an onerous burden. — Amy Tan
One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. — George Bernard Shaw
If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it. — John Irving
There's no reason you shouldn't, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly. — John Irving
There are few things as seemingly untouched by the real world as a child asleep. — John Irving