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You Live Your Life At The Time You Live It -- You Don't Have Much Of An Overview When What's Happening To You Is Still Happening.
-John Irving
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You Live Your Life

John Irving
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You Live Your Life At The Time You Live It -- You Don't Have Much Of An Overview When What's Happening To You Is Still Happening.

Understanding the Quote: "you live your life at the time you live it -- you..."

This quote by John Irving reflects deeply on the theme of live your life. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Live Your Life, Stills, Happenings, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how John Irving interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About John Irving

John Irving is celebrated for insightful thoughts on live your life and stills. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Live Your Life
Stills
Happenings
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Religious
I Never Know When I Finish The Novel I Am Writing Which Will Be The Next Novel Out Of The Station.
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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.
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Giving
Cooking
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Hard Work
Serious
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Feels
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Tvs
You're Nice,' Cushie Told Him, Squeezing His Hand. 'and You're My Oldest Friend.' But They Both Must Have Known That You Can Know Someone All Your Life And Never Quite Be Friends.
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Squeezing
Grant Us Safe Lodging, And Holy Rest,” Mrs. Grogan Was Saying, “and Peace At Last.” Amen, Thought Wilbur Larch, The Saint Of St. Cloud’s, Who Was Seventy-something, And An Ether Addict, And Who Felt That He’d Come A Long Way And Still Had A Long Way To Go.
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Long
Saint
Watch Out For People Who Call Themselves Religious; Make Sure You Know What They Mean - Make Sure They Know What They Mean!
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Mean
People
We Will Often Do Anything To Pretend That Nothing Is On Our Minds.
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This Is A Writer’s Lesson: To Learn That The Sounds That We Imagine Can Be The Clearest, Loudest Sounds Of All.
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Lessons
Imagine
I Want To Go On Being A Student," I Told Him. "i Want To Be A Teacher. I'm Just A Reader," I Said. "don't Sound So Ashamed," He Said. "reading Is A Gift." "i Learned It From You," I Told Him. "it Doesn't Matter Where You Learned It- It's A Gift. If You Care About Something, You Have To Protect It. If You're Lucky Enough To Find A Way Of Life You Love, You Have To Find The Courage To Live It.
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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.
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Doe
Dramatic
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Church
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Encouraging
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Memorable
Thinking
If Pride Is A Sin ... Moral Pride Is The Greatest Sin.
Pride
Moral
Sin
There Are Always Suicides Among People Who Are Unable To Say What They Mean.
Suicide
Mean
People
You Don't Want To Be Ungenerous Toward People Who Give You Prizes, But It Is Never The Social Or Political Message That Interests Me In A Novel. I Begin With An Interest In A Relationship, A Situation, A Character.
Character
People
Giving
Your Memory Is A Monster; You Forget - It Doesn't. It Simply Files Things Away. It Keeps Things For You, Or Hides Things From You - And Summons Them To Your Recall With A Will Of Its Own. You Think You Have A Memory; But It Has You!
Memories
Thinking
Monsters
And Father Said, “there Are No Happy Endings.” “right!” Cried Iowa Bob – An Odd Mixture Of Exuberance And Stoicism In His Cracked Voice. “death Is Horrible, Final, And Frequently Premature,” Coach Bob Declared. “so What?” My Father Said. “right!” Cried Iowa Bob. “that’s The Point: So What?” Thus The Family Maxim Was That An Unhappy Ending Did Not Undermine A Rich And Energetic Life. This Was Based On The Belief That There Were No Happy Endings.
Father
Iowa
Voice
I Always Thought That You Could Do Worse Than Find Yourself Dying In The Company Of A Devoted Former Student.
Finding Yourself
Dying
Students
Most Places We Leave In Childhood Grow Less, Not More, Fancy.
Childhood
Fancy
Grows
Just Because You're Sober, Don't Think You're A Good Driver, Cookie.
Thinking
Cookies
Sober
Patriotism Is Not Necessarily Defined As Blind Devotion To A President's Particular Agenda - And That To Dispute A Presidential Policy Is Not Necessarily Anti-american.
Presidential
Agendas
Blind
When People Say That German Or Any Other Language Is Romantic... All They Really Mean Is That They've Enjoyed A Past In The Language
Mean
Past
People
She Felt Detached From Her Family, And Thought It Strange How They Had Lavished So Much Attention On Her, As A Child, And Then At Some Appointed, Prearranged Time They Seemed To Stop The Flow Of Affection And Being The Expectations - As If, For A Brief Phrase, You Were Expected To Absorb Love (and Get Enough), And Then, For A Much Longer And More Serious Phase, You Were Expected To Fulfill Certain Obligations.
Children
Expectations
Attention
If You Can't Love Crudeness, How Can You Truly Love Mankind?
Mankind
Ifs
Nothing Moves At The Hotel New Hampshire! We're Screwed Down Here-for Life!
Moving
Hampshire
Hotel
In The World According To Garp, We Are All Terminal Cases
World
Cases
Owen Meany
I Will Tell You What Is My Overriding Perception Of The Last Twenty Years: That We Are A Civilization Careening Toward A Succession Of Anticlimaxes – Toward An Infinity Of Unsatisfying, And Disagreeable Endings.
Years
Civilization
Perception
You Know, People Think You Have To Be Dumb To Skip Rope For 45 Minutes. No, You Have To Be Able To Imagine Something Else. While You're Skipping Rope, You Have To Be Able To See Something Else.
Thinking
People
Dumb
If You Are Lucky Enough To Find A Way Of Life You Love, You Have To Find The Courage To Live It.
Life
Courage
Love You
In The World According To Her Father, Jenny Garp Knew, We Must Have Energy. Her Famous Grandmother, Jenny Fields, Once Thought Of Us As Externals, Vital Organs, Absentees, And Goners. But In The World According To Garp, We Are All Terminal Cases.
Father
Grandmother
Energy
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.
Worst Case Scenario
Stories
Kind
The History Of A City Was Like The History Of A Family—there Is Closeness And Even Affection, But Death Eventually Separates Everyone From Each Other. It Is Only The Vividness Of Memory That Keeps The Dead Alive Forever; A Writer’s Job Is To Imagine Everything So Personally That The Fiction Is As Vivid As Our Personal Memories.
Jobs
Memories
Cities
When Time Passes, It's The People Who Knew You Whom You Want To See; They're The Ones You Can Talk To. When Enough Time Passes, What's It Matter What They Did To You?
People
Enough Time
Want
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.
Aftermath
Construction
Knows
There Was No Manifestation Of Contemporary Culture That Did Not Indicate To My Grandmother How Steadfast Was The Nation's Decline, How Merciless Our Mental And Moral Deterioration, How Swiftly All-embracing Our Final Decadence. I Never Saw Her Read A Book Again; But She Referred To Books Often - As If They Were Shrines And Cathedrals Of Learning That Television Had Plundered And Then Abandoned.
Book
Grandmother
Finals
I Think The Sport Of Wrestling, Which I Became Involved With At The Age Of 14... I Competed Until I Was 34, Kind Of Old For A Contact Sport. I Coached The Sport Until I Was 47. I Think The Discipline Of Wrestling Has Given Me The Discipline I Have To Write.
Birthday
Sports
Writing
Kids Are Perfect People Till Grownups Get Their Hands On Them.
Kids
Hands
People
…there Is No Nakedness That Compares To Being Naked In Front Of Someone For The First Time.
Naked
Firsts
First Time
I've Always Preferred Writing In Longhand. I've Always Written First Drafts In Longhand.
Writing
Firsts
Written
The Former Stewardess Glared At Her Ex-pilot Husband As If He Had Been Speaking, And Thinking, In The Absence Of Sufficient Oxygen.
Husband
Thinking
Oxygen
A Sentence Boiled In Her, But She Could Not Yet See It Clearly.
Life
Sentences
There Are Few Things As Seemingly Untouched By The Real World As A Child Asleep.
Children
Real
World
Every American Should Be Forced To Live Outside The United States For A Year Or Two. Americans Should Be Forced To See How Ridiculous They Appear To The Rest Of The World! They Should Listen To Someone Else's Version Of Themselves--to Anyone Else's Version! Every Country Knows More About America Than Americans Know About Themselves! And Americans Know Absolutely Nothing About Any Other Country!
Country
Years
Two
I Have Pretty Thick Skin, And I Think If You're Going To Be In This Business, If You're Going To Be An Actor Or A Writer, You Better Have A Thick Skin.
Thinking
Skins
Actors
I Have A Very Poor Record At Multiple Choice Questions.
Multiple Choice
Choices
Records
Safer Than We Are.” I Told Franny. “safer Than Love.” “let Me Tell Ya Kid,” Franny Said To Me, Squeezing My Hand. “everything’s Safer Than Love.
Kids
Hands
Said
Religious Freedom Should Work Two Ways: We Should Be Free To Practice The Religion Of Our Choice, But We Must Also Be Free From Having Someone Else's Religion Practiced On Us.
Religious
Practice
Two
I Do Know Where I'm Going And It's Just A Matter Of Finding The Language To Get There.
Matter
Language
Findings
How We Love To Love Things For Other People; How We Love To Have Other People Love Things Through Our Eyes.
Love
Eye
People
It Doesn't Really Matter Who Said It - It's So Obviously True. Before You Can Write Anything, You Have To Notice Something.
Writing
Matter
Said
But Who Can Distinguish Between Falling In Love And Imagining Falling In Love? Even Genuinely Falling In Love Is An Act Of The Imagination.
Falling In Love
Fall
Love Is
He Was One Of Those People Things Came Easily To, But He Did Little To Demonstrate That He Deserved To Be Gifted.
People
Littles
Gifted
My Dear Boy, Please Don’t Put A Label On Me—don’t Make Me A Category Before You Get To Know Me!
Boys
Labels
Categories
Plot Is A Map And I Begin With It. It Is What Made Me Admire The Novels Of The 19th Century; That The Stories Are Foreshadowed. TheyÕre Going Someplace.
Writing
Creative
Maps
Adolescence-is It The First Time In Life We Discover That We Have Something Terrible To Hide From Those Who Love Us?
Firsts
First Time
Terrible
It Is Your Responsibility To Find Fault With Me, It Is Mine To Hear You Out. But Don't Expect Me To Change.
Responsibility
Faults
Owen Meany
This Is What Self-centered Religion Does To Us: It Allows Us To Use It To Further Our Own Ends.
Self
Doe
Use
It Seems To Me That People Who Don’t Learn As Easily As Others Suffer From A Kind Of Learning Disability—there Is Something Different About The Way They Comprehend Unfamiliar Material—but I Fail To See How This Disability Is Improved By Psychiatric Consultation. What Seems To Be Lacking Is A Technical Ability That Those Of Us Called ‘good Students’ Are Born With. Someone Should Concretely Study These Skills And Teach Them. What Does A Shrink Have To Do With The Process?
Skills
People
Suffering
They All Settled Into Being The Kind Of Friends When They Heard From Each Other.... Or When They Occasionally Got Together. And When They Were Not In Touch, They Did Not Think Of One Another.
Thinking
Together
Kind
So, You See, It's A Real Chore For Me To Write A Book Review Because It's Like A Contest. It's Like I'm Writing That Book Review For Every Bad Book Reviewer I've Ever Known And It's A Way Of Saying [thrusts A Middle Finger Into The Air] This Is How You Ought To Do It. I Like To Rub Their Noses In It.
Real
Book
Writing
The Building Of The Architecture Of A Novel - The Craft Of It - Is Something I Never Tire Of.
Writing
Crafts
Architecture
My Life As A Writer Consists Of 1/8 Talent And 7/8 Discipline.
Motivation
Discipline
Talent
We Permit Bad Taste In This Country. In Fact, We Even Encourage It - And Reward It In All Manner Of Ways.
Country
Rewards
Way
Lilly Was Not Crazy. She Left A Serious Suicide Note. 'sorry,' Said The Note. 'just Not Big Enough.
Suicide
Sorry
Crazy
The Arrangements That Couples Make In Order To Maintain Civility In The Midst Of Their Journey To Divorce Are Often Most Elaborate When The Professed Top Priority Is To Protect A Child.
Children
Couple
Divorce
I Believe In Rules Of Behavior, And I'm Quite Interested In Stories About The Consequences Of Breaking Those Rules.
Believe
Stories
Behavior
It Is An Important Distinction To Note That She Looked Not Only As If She Had Taken Good Care Of Herself, But That She Had Good Reason To Have Done So. (...) She Looked To Be In Such Total Possession Of Her Life That Only The Most Confident Men Could Continue To Look At Her If She Looked Back At Them. Even In Bus Stations, She Was A Woman Who Was Stared At Only Until She Looked Back.
Taken
Men
Important
It Is Exhausting To Be Seventeen And Not Know Who You Are.
Seventeen
Knows
Exhausting
It's A No-win Argument - That Business Of What We're Born With And What Our Environment Does To Us. And It's A Boring Argument, Because It Simplifies The Mysteries That Attend Both Our Birth And Our Growth.
Winning
Growth
Doe
Almost Everyone Is Dying To Leave Home, Eventually; And Almost Everyone Needs To.
Home
Dying
Needs
Never Confuse Faith, Or Belief — Of Any Kind — With Something Even Remotely Intellectual.
Intellectual
Belief
Kind
… But Only Because Exhaustion Is A Life-sign; It Is At Least A Form Of Being Human.
Being Human
Form
Humans
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