Maria Semple Quotes (20 quotes)

Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„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 ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„I never understood the concept of a fluffy summer read. For me, summer reading means beaches, long train rides and layovers in foreign airports. All of which call for escaping into really long books.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„There's a happiness that comes from writing that I won't live without.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„Ruthless concern with story is what I learned in television.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„My first novel didn't sell well. It was really painful and humiliating and shocking to me.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„'Mad About You' fit my sensibility the most of any show that I worked on, and as a result, it was really fun. It felt like a very natural fit.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„In TV writing, I felt like Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians. There's so much more freedom in fiction writing.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the plot forward.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„I learned that comedy is born out of strong characters. I won't begin writing a character until I have a clear take on them.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„And dialogue, I'm good at it, and it's because it's the only thing you have to work with in TV writing.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„An artist must create. If she doesn't, she will become a menace to society.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„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 ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„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 ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„My talent isn't so much in traditional research as in finding really smart people and badgering them with questions.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„After decades spent in rewrite rooms surrounded by other shouting writers, I discovered that I work best alone. I like being in charge of my time, working out the problems according to my own rhythms and being able to nap. That's a big one, the napping on demand!“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„I drop my kid off at school and then race home, and it's a very limited time. I can only do really serious writing for a couple of hours. And then I always go on a walk, I do a one-to-two-hour walk; I don't go running or hard hiking.“
― Maria Semple ―
Picture of quotation author Maria Semple
„I keep an elaborate calendar for my characters detailing on which dates everything happens. I'm constantly revising this as I go along. It gives me the freedom to intricately plot my story, knowing it will at least hold up on a timeline.“
― Maria Semple ―

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Author information

Maria Semple
Author born: November 30, 1963
Nationality: American
Author Profession: Novelist

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