Maria Semple Quotes
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.
Quotes to Explore
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Broadway is really my life.
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During the 2008 election, I made clear to the Obama campaign that I don't think it's wise for me to force my personal political agenda on anyone.
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People think that celebs make a lot more money than we do. We look for bargains and we do a lot of stuff on our own.
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We must become acquainted with our emotional household: we must see our feelings as they actually are, not as we assume they are. This breaks their hypnotic and damaging hold on us.
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Because it is my second season with the team, no time has been wasted in getting to know the people I'm working with. I am aware of what the team is capable of and how the organisation works, and they are familiar with what makes me tick.
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It was my mother's idea. Her feeling was that I didn't have the intelligence to pick a trade myself.
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The best time to release a film is on a festive date like Divali or Eid, or at a time when there are no big films three to four weeks before or after.
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There's nothing I would love more than to host an awards show where I'm nominated for an award - that is so funny to me.
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Everything is perfect in the universe - even your desire to improve it.
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I feel that we, as Indians, have a knack for loving a stereotypical, sobbing, sympathy-seeking personality. I feel that we need to promote quirky, cool and youthful talent. We have to stop propagating the sob-story angle of celebs, where they try to be larger-than-life. That is very outdated. It is so boring that it puts you to sleep.
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A lot of artists don't like the sound of their voice. They're put off by it.
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Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.
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Even President Obama has not suggested he could get another country to pay for building a wall between Mexico and the United States.
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French people are never happy with what they have. They're always complaining. They're happy when they're complaining.
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We suffered a terrible blow on 11 September 2001. We responded with fear and anger. A fight-or-flight response is adaptive in any species. For us, given our power, fight was the only response we could imagine.
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Fighting bitterness can be a full-time job.
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Making the 'An Idiot Abroad' series, I was really dreading going to India; I thought I'd hate it. It was a nightmare, and I was really ill - just like everyone says.
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Whatever storytelling muscles you've developed as a documentary filmmaker will be extremely helpful as a narrative filmmaker.
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Gird your hearts with silent fortitude, suffering yet hoping all things.
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I know that you can only keep a secret a secret for so long.
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I'm an idiot anyway, but sometimes you feel like an idiot times ten when you're stoned.
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There are a number of women who have brought about immense change in society.
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The true sign of decadence is not the collusion of the university and the state (something that is by no means incompatible with honest barbarity), but the theory and guarantee of academic freedom, when in reality people assume with brutal simplicity that the aim of study is to steer its disciples to a socially conceived individuality.
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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.
