“YOUR BOREDOM IS YOUR PROBLEM," said Owen Meany. "IT'S YOUR LACK OF IMAGINATION THAT BORES YOU. HARDY HAS THE WORLD FIGURED OUT. TESS IS DOOMED. FATE HAS IT IN FOR HER. SHE'S A VICTIM; IF YOU'RE A VICTIM, THE WORLD WILL USE YOU. WHY SHOULD SOMEONE WHO'S GOT SUCH A WORKED-OUT WAY OF SEEING THE WORLD BORE YOU? WHY SHOULDN'T YOU BE INTERESTED IN SOMEONE WHO'S WORKED OUT A WAY TO SEE THE WORLD? THAT'S WHAT MAKES WRITERS INTERESTING!”

American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter

John Winslow Irving is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is known for fiction that moves between the two countries and for a body of work that has reached readers beyond the page through film and adaptation. Irving writes across novels, short fiction, and screenplays, with a career shaped by both American and Canadian identity. His work is closely associated with storytelling that is broad in scope and attentive to character, family, and the often complicated turns of ordinary life.