Search
John Irving
Author
John Irving is the author of twelve books, including “The World According to Garp,” “A Prayer For Owen Meany,” and most recently, “Last Night on Twisted River.” Over his career he has won a National Book Award, an Academy Award for his adaptation of “The Cider House Rules,” and many other honors, and has been translated into over thirty languages. A former competitive wrestler, he splits his time between Vermont and Montreal.
Read Less
5mins
Between America’s bullying sense of patriotism and its increasingly divided populace, it’s difficult for a writer to call the land home. Yet, insists John Irving, if he’s going to “pick […]
2mins
After the publication of the “World According to Garp” and numerous other bestsellers, John Irving does not really have to worry about his career. But, for those looking to break […]
5mins
With its complete disregard for screenwriters and endless, seemingly luck-based, collaborative process, it’s a wonder anybody with literary sympathies can stomach cinema culture. Despite all this, John Irving wonders if […]
3mins
With their richly textured characters, intensely visible milieux and wondrous storylines, no novels, says John Irving, have surpassed the splendor and sense of eminence of the nineteenth century novelists.
3mins
The tension between John Irving, John Updike and Tom Wolfe was overplayed and misguided, says the novelist. The real sparks would fly, he says, if he ran into a few […]
2mins
For John Irving, whose sprawling novels can take years to complete, one of the most significant challenges of writing is creating the sense that the words on the page are […]
2mins
While John Irving may have never won a major championship as a wrestler, his experience in the sport has equipped him with the stamina and discipline necessary to struggle through […]
1mins
The famed novelist explains why even considering the act strikes many with a sense of anxiety and impending doom.
2mins
For the novelist, obsessions, by definition, control you. Thus, try as he may to control the plot of his stories, a variety of recurring fixations inevitably work themselves in.
1mins
For John Irving, the need for a daily ration of solitude was his strongest “pre-writing” moment as a child.
1mins
When not interrupted by family and travel, the writer begins his work early, keeps at it for hours at a time, and does it every day.
3mins
For even our best writers, penning that final sentence can be a difficult and tortuous affair. For John Irving, who never begins a novel without knowing its concluding words, this […]
John Irving’s novels have earned him a National Book Award, sold tens of millions of copies and have been translated into over thirty languages. Yet, far from affording him a […]
36mins
Big Think sits down with the author of twelve novels, including “Last Night in Twisted River.”