The World According to Garp

by John Irving

‘You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.’

Love it

‘If you are careful,’ Garp wrote, ‘if you use good ingredients, and you don’t take any shortcuts, then you can usually cook something very good. Sometimes it is the only worthwhile product you can salvage from a day: what you make to eat. With writing, I find, you can have all the right ingredients, give plenty of time and care, and still get nothing. Also true of love. Cooking, therefore, can keep a person who tries hard sane.’

They finished their meal in silence. Helen knew Garp was thinking up a story to tell Walt after dinner. She knew Garp did this to calm himself whenever he was worried about the children – as if the act of imagining a good story for children was a way to keep children safe forever.

Very cute how she sensed him. And cute how he thought up a story for his kid

‘A book feels true when it feels true,’

the pursuit of excellence is a lethal habit.”’

‘Imagining something is better than remembering something,’ Garp wrote.