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Sometimes I can better describe a person by another person's reaction. In a story in my first book, I couldn't think of a way to sufficiently describe the charisma of a certain boy, so the narrator says, I knew girls who saved his gum.
Amy Hempel
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Amy Hempel
Age: 73
Born: 1951
Born: December 14
Journalist
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More quotes by Amy Hempel
When my mother died, my father's early widowhood gave him social cachet he would not have had if they had divorced. He was a bigger catch for the sorrow attached.
Amy Hempel
I thought, my love is so good, why isn't it calling the same thing back.
Amy Hempel
consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless.
Amy Hempel
They say the smart dog obeys but the smarter dog knows when to disobey.
Amy Hempel
I'm not good at small talk I'm not good at big talk and medium talk just doesn't come up.
Amy Hempel
The only time the word baby doesn't scare me is the time that it should, when it is what a man calls me.
Amy Hempel
Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.
Amy Hempel
For peace of mind, I will lie about any thing at any time.
Amy Hempel
He could not wait to get rid of them so he could enjoy remembering them.
Amy Hempel
An idea might spark an essay, but never a story.
Amy Hempel
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.
Amy Hempel
I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.
Amy Hempel
I have written letters that are failures, but I have written few, I think, that are lies. Trying to reach a person means asking the same question over and over again: Is this the truth, or not? I begin this letter to you, then, in the western tradition. If I understand it, the western tradition is: Put your cards on the table.
Amy Hempel
I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence.
Amy Hempel
When the beer is gone, so are they -- flexing their cars on up the boulevard.
Amy Hempel
In my head there's a broken balcony I fall off of when I speak.
Amy Hempel
I get rational when I panic.
Amy Hempel
I've always known when I start a story what the last line is. It's always been the case, since the first story I ever wrote. I don't know how it's going to get there, but I seem to need the destination. I need to know where I end up. It never changes, ever.
Amy Hempel
Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person's going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don't give them one.
Amy Hempel
Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed.
Amy Hempel