36 Maria Semple Quotes for You to Enjoy

Maria Semple

American Novelist

Born: May 21, 1964

Me People Reading Time Writing You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

We need to preserve our neighborhoods, our small business, our local economy. Maria Semple

Business Local Our Neighborhoods Small Small Business Economy Need Preserve

I survived many a youth hostel bunk room reading Tolstoy by flashlight. Maria Semple

Youth Reading Hostel Bunk Survived Room Many Tolstoy

There's something uniquely exhilarating about puzzling together the truth at the hands of an unreliable narrator. Maria Semple

Truth Together About Something Unreliable Puzzling Narrator Exhilarating Hands Uniquely

I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs to represent some specific pain you're going through. it's not just a story. Maria Semple

Time Needs You Pain Think Some About Given Through Going Represent Just Where Story Really Moment Novel Specific

Ruthless concern with story is what I learned in television. Maria Semple

Television Ruthless Concern Learned Story

On my walks, that's when the good ideas come. The kind of hard, gritty work is when you're sitting at the computer and it's kind of intense and you're kind of in super control of it - the walks are when you let go. That's when the really big breakthroughs come in, and it's very strange. Maria Semple

My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. Maria Semple

World Father Kind Up Grew Screenwriter

I think because I try to keep things as real as I can, or I try to start from a place of reality, I almost don't have the imagination to write a book that's not set where I am. Maria Semple

Reality Book Try Think Imagination Write Almost Because Am Real Where Place Keep Things Start Set

I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing. Maria Semple

Writing Job Important Think Most Important Job Authority The Most Important Novelist Bring

There's a happiness that comes from writing that I won't live without. Maria Semple

Happiness Writing Live Without

My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. I always had a mind for characters and dialogue, and my head was filled with that stuff, so it seemed like a good place to start. Maria Semple

I don't know if it's a failure of imagination on my part, but I'm not going to be writing about Paris in the 1800s. I feel like it would come off as just ludicrously uninformed, even if I did a lot of research. Maria Semple

Failure Writing Research Imagination Would About Paris Part Feel Come Like Know Lot Off Did Going Just Uninformed Even

I naively thought I would quit television writing, move up to Seattle, my novel would come out, and then I'd have a novel writing career, and so I found myself really stuck in this very poisonous self-pitying state and felt like I'd never write again. And I blamed Seattle for that. Maria Semple

Myself Writing Thought State Television Out Would Blamed Stuck Write Never Poisonous Come Like Felt Up Very Quit Move Again Then Really Novel Found Seattle Career

In my high-minded and naive way, I believed the only books worth reading were the classics. Maria Semple

Worth Reading Books Way Worth Reading Classics Only Naive Were Believed

I steer clear of any novel that gets billed as a 'meditation.' Maria Semple

Meditation Steer Clear Gets Any Novel

I'm consistently blown away by 'Mad Men.' Having spent so much time in the writers' room, I'm cursed in that anytime I watch something, I'm always calculating what the writers are up to. Maria Semple

My favorite kind of book is a domestic drama that's grounded in reality yet slightly unhinged. Maria Semple

Reality Book Drama Slightly Favorite Kind Domestic Grounded

Some people, especially literary people, they think, 'I'll write this original script, and it will be full of ideas. I'll submit it, and they'll hire me for television.' That's not the case. Maria Semple

Me People Will Some People Submit Think Television Some Case Write Ideas Hire Literary Script Full Original

When you become a parent, that's a whole new level of life intruding. Nobody tells you how boring and time-sucking it's going to be! Or how the responsibility feels like an airbag going off in your life. Maria Semple

Life You Responsibility Become Tells Boring Parent Nobody Feels New Like How New Level Off Going Your Whole Level

Novels demand a certain complexity of narrative and scope, so it's necessary for the characters to change. Maria Semple

Change Complexity Characters Demand Narrative Scope Certain Novels Necessary

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