John Quotes

There's nothing as scary as the future.

People only ask questions when they're ready to hear the answers.

wherever the TV glows, there sits someone who isn't reading.

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.

I always know more about the ending, even the aftermath to the ending, than I know about the beginning. And so there's a construction that works from back to front.

I have a very poor record at multiple choice questions.

My life as a writer consists of 1/8 talent and 7/8 discipline.

People regard art too highly, and history not enough

She was an expert at the art of sudden appearance.

I believe in rules of behavior, and I'm quite interested in stories about the consequences of breaking those rules.

I've always preferred writing in longhand. I've always written first drafts in longhand.

This is what self-centered religion does to us: it allows us to use it to further our own ends.

when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble.

If pride is a sin ... moral pride is the greatest sin.

Don’t you understand?” he would say, “You imagine the story better than I remember it.

I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.

I grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn't terribly painful.

I'm a worst-case scenario person. I'm only interested in a story because I kind of go, like a magnet, to the worst thing that can happen.

I'm not afraid of the opinions of others - but of being needed and coming up short.

The religion of the heart is as intimate as a wish breathed to the night sky.

There are a lot of ethical firms on Wall Street.

It seems that it is only in the United States that an almost masochistic attack on the position of its own oil companies exists.

There are truths, and there are legends touched with truth, and all can teach you something.

There are lots of people who cannot think seriously without injuring their minds.

We live in such constant nearness to the abyss of past time that the moment is endlessly sucked into.

What’s old doesn’t need to be old-fashioned. It gets reborn.

As the body dieth when the soul departeth, so the soul of man dieth, when it hath not the knowledge of God.

The word of God is full of sad and grave counsel, full of the knowledge of God, of examples of virtues, and of correction of vices, of the end of this life, and of the life to come.

Are we to have a church in which everyone's judgment is equal to everyone else's? That's not a church, it's chaos. Common sense dictates that you keep the fox out of the chicken coop.

The question now is: Can we understand our stupidity? This is a test of intellect, not of character.

You don't have to see eye-to-eye to walk hand-in-hand. You just have to want to go in the same direction.

Progress occurs one apology at a time.

Apology sends the clearest signal that we have the strength of character to reconcile ourselves with the truth.

When I was at Pixar, I was in my hole. I was an animator, I had my shots and I was like, "Yeah, I've gotta make this perfect!" It's a very selfish thing.

It's almost impossible to read a fine thing without wanting to do a fine thing.

A boy becomes a man when a man is needed

All men are moral. Only their neighbors are not.

The craft of writing is the art of penetrating other minds with the figures that are in your own mind.

..it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world...It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel.

A good writer always works at the impossible.

There is no lostness like that which comes to a man when a perfect and certain pattern has dissolved about him.

The misery stayed, not thought about but aching away, and sometimes I would have to ask myself, Why do I ache? Men can get used to anything, but it takes time.

... you must not expect to find that people understand what they do.

So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only a weary evening world.

You ain't worth a greased lack pin to ram you into hell.

The power of an attitude is amazing

On all levels American society is rigged. I am troubled by the cynical immorality of my country. It cannot survive on this basis.

But most important of all, the truth, that dangerous stuff, became beautiful and more precious.

I would like to sit still for a while but I'm restless you know and sitting still is only an ideal like celibacy and complete cleanliness.

The impulse of the American woman to geld her husband and castrate her sons is very strong.