In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases

They were involved in that awkward procedure of getting to unknow each other.

In a school community, someone who reads a book for some secretive purpose, other than discussing it, is strange. What was she reading for?

As Garp put it, 'You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.' Even if these so-called endings and beginnings are illusions.

...nearly everything seems a letdown after a writer has finished writing something.

...the demands of writing and of real life are not always similar.

You don't have to say I love you to say I love you.

When someone is vicious toward you they are giving you a glimpse of the pain they carry in themselves.

Life is an opportunity to love.

Without seeing the whole picture and without knowing the whole story of a man’s life, our judgements about him will most probably be wrong and unfair!

Knowledge is what enables one to be wrong. (p. 11)

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

I think that in the colonial imaginary of the average Mexican, in how it drives us, the economic dependence on the US, and in some cases cultural dependence, is quite palpable, very strong.

The coward makes himself cowardly, the hero makes himself heroic.

Placing the state in charge of moral principles is equivalent to putting the proverbial fox in charge of the chicken coop.

What motivated me to dedicate myself to public service for nearly two-thirds of my life was the chance to produce results for those people who entrusted me to be their voice and their champion.