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Since his mother died I have seen him steam a cucumber thinking it was zucchini. That's the kind of thing that turns my heart right over.

Amy Hempel

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Amy Hempel
Age: 72
Born: 1951
Born: December 14
Journalist
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Kind
Died
Thinking
Seen
Since
Turns
Mother
Zucchini
Right
Cucumber
Heart
Cucumbers
Thing
Steam

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I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes I give you three minutes to show me the spark.
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The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me.
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And I see that not touching for so long was a drive to the beach with the windows rolled up so the waves feel that much colder.
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A five-hour flight works out to three days and nights on land, by rail, from sea to shining sea. You can chalk off the hours on the back of the seat ahead. But seventy-some hours will not seem so long to you if you tell yourself first: This is where I am going to be for the rest of my natural life.
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Then the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently picking ticks engorged like grapes off the sleeping dogs. And when the men kissed the women good night, and their weekend whiskers scratched the women's cheeks, the women did not think shave, they thought stay.
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Just once in my life--oh, when have I ever wanted anything just once in my life?
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consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless.
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Dreams: the place most of us get what we need.
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In my head there's a broken balcony I fall off of when I speak.
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I think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands.
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I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting closer. I had no idea how to write fiction. So I did journalism because there were rules I could learn. You can teach someone to write a news story. They might not write a great one, but you can teach that pretty easily.
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I would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark where hundreds of lightning bugs blink this code in sequence: right here, nowhere else! Right now, never again!
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I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me.
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An idea might spark an essay, but never a story.
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I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so I read constantly. If I used words that might have seemed surprising at a young age, she would recognize that and it would please her.
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I'm not good at small talk I'm not good at big talk and medium talk just doesn't come up.
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I'm not first and foremost interested in story and the what-happens, but I'm interested in who's telling it and how they're telling it and the effects of whatever happened on the characters and the people.
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My job ... I do nothing, it pays nothing, but - you guessed it - it's better than nothing.
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I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry.
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if it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive.
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