Maria Semple Quotes

When I came back from my first TED, very few people knew what it was. But around the time I was sitting down to write 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette,' in 2010, TED was exploding.

Maria Semple

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Quotes to Explore

• Cuba needs a dose of perestroika.

  

  Carlos Fuentes
  • Needs
  • Cuba
  • Dose

• I think I was probably an early teenager when I discovered Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and a bunch of people that are on a long list of artists. They were important to me, especially as an early adolescent.

  

  Madeleine Peyroux
  • People
  • Important
  • Long

• Every member in Congress has a seat, and they deserve a seat at the table.

  

  Dan Webster
  • Deserve
  • Congress
  • Table

• The claim made by Team Obama that every dollar in stimulus translates into a dollar-and-a-half in growth is economic fiction. The costs of stimulus reduce future growth. No country has ever spent itself to prosperity. The price of stimulus has to be paid sometime.

  

  Karl Rove
  • Country
  • Future
  • Team

• What I'm still grappling with and learning how to do is to be looking and thinking cinematically, having come from television.

  

  J. J. Abrams
  • Thinking
  • Learning
  • Looking

• 'Shameless' was such a weird time in my life because I never really experienced any kind of role that put me that much in the spotlight before.

  

  Laura Slade Wiggins
  • Life
  • Time
  • Weird

• My mother worked in factories, worked as a domestic, worked in a restaurant, always had a second job.

  

  Ed Bradley
  • Job
  • Mother
  • Mom

• When the government takes video of people in public places, the images should only be kept as long as they may reasonably be needed to investigate a crime. After a few days, if there has not been a report of a crime, they should be destroyed.

  

  Adam Cohen
  • People
  • Long
  • May

• National armies fight nations, royal armies fight their like, the first obey a mob, always demented and the second a king, generally sane.

  

  J. F. C. Fuller
  • Always
  • King
  • Fight

• In my early 20s, I was a big fan of Theodore Dreiser and might be one of the few people on the planet who have voluntarily read all his novels.

  

  Nathaniel Philbrick
  • People
  • Big
  • Early

• Unlike many Californians or New Yorkers, college football is a religion down south.

  

  Omari Hardwick
  • College
  • Football
  • Religion

• It's an honor to live in and serve the great City of Los Angeles. I'm also immensely grateful for the support I've received from Ireland.

  

  Walter O'Brien
  • Great
  • Live
  • Support

• Don't overact the story of your name. Overact the story of your work.

  

  Karl Lagerfeld
  • Work
  • Story
  • Name

• What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy reaching the prime minister; I don't write the book with the big serial killer who lops off heads. My setting is a very placid pool of suburbia, family life. And within that I can make pretty big splashes.

  

  Harlan Coben
  • People
  • Life
  • Family

• Stealing things is a glorious occupations, particularly in the art world.

  

  Malcolm Mclaren
  • World
  • Art
  • Stealing

• I love to see a wood full of bluebells. Growing up in the Kent countryside, I have special memories of this brief annual spectacle.

  

  Gary Hume
  • Memories
  • Special
  • Spectacle

• I was a fashion editor for years in London before I came to 'Vogue,' and I spent my life arranging the folds of a ball gown skirt for a picture and pinning fabric and using all those stylist tricks. And you don't have to do that now because they can do it in Photoshop.

  

  Hamish Bowles
  • Life
  • Fashion
  • Picture

• I have lifestyle requirements. Photos, meetings, lunches, dinners, facial care, tooth care. It requires an exorbitant amount of money.

  

  Gary Coleman
  • Money
  • Care
  • Meetings

• I find a lot of really hot people to be extremely boring because they haven't had to work at it.

  

  Drew Barrymore
  • People
  • Work

• What I want to communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I've come to understand is that regardless of your faith - and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers - regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.

  

  Barack Obama
  • People
  • World
  • Country

• The reason people buy Kind bars is that they're delicious and they're healthful. If the product doesn't taste good, isn't the right price, or doesn't fit their lifestyle choice, even if it's made by Mother Teresa, it's not going to work out.

  

  Daniel Lubetzky
  • People
  • Good
  • Work

• 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.

  

  Maria Semple
  • Time
  • Work
  • Alone

• Awe combined with intimacy is the essence of Christian worship.

  

  J. D. Greear
  • Christian
  • Worship
  • Intimacy

• When I came back from my first TED, very few people knew what it was. But around the time I was sitting down to write 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette,' in 2010, TED was exploding.

  

  Maria Semple
  • People
  • Time