Maria Semple Quotes
My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. I always had a mind for characters and dialogue, and my head was filled with that stuff, so it seemed like a good place to start.
Quotes to Explore
-
In 1958, my father invested everything he had in a business venture and became the largest automobile dealership in Chicago for Ford's new Edsel line. But Edsel sales plummeted and my father fell into bankruptcy. I watched him struggle; working long hours to protect us from poverty.
-
Bond? It is a bit like saying, 'Do you want to play Superman?' Anyone would dream of it. It's one of the most coveted roles in film. I'd be honoured. But I don't know if it will actually happen. I'm just happy with the idea of being associated with it. It's nice there's a lot of good will.
-
I have dedicated many years to economic study, up to the Ph.D. level, to analyze and understand the inherent weaknesses of aid and why aid policies have consistently failed to deliver on economic growth and poverty alleviation.
-
Although he's no longer with us, Steve Jobs is still inspirational to me, as he managed to find the balance between right brain/left-brain thinking that is crucial to building a creative technology business.
-
We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and providing for their abundance.
-
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.
-
Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.
-
On the one hand, the rich look askance at our continuing poverty - on the other, they warn us against their own methods.
-
Well, after the divorce, I went home and turned all the lights on!
-
Time stays, we go.
-
Contrary to what professional economists will typically tell you, economics is not a science. All economic theories have underlying political and ethical assumptions, which make it impossible to prove them right or wrong in the way we can with theories in physics or chemistry.
-
When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended literature. One can only write a black novel about Auschwitz or - you should excuse the expression - a cheap serial, which begins in Auschwitz and is still not over.
-
If people don't get paid for their inventions, that's not a good thing. In the case of many patents, there are people who aren't in a position to take them to the next level. If you don't enforce your rights, no one is going to enforce them for you.
-
Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
-
My music, certainly, has never embarrassed me.
-
Yesterday is a cancelled check. Today is cash on the line. Tomorrow is a promissory note.
-
David Lynch helped me be cool.
-
You never stop thinking about technique, but really, the reason we're actors is because of the sheer joy of those few moments you get every now and again where you're totally present. The rest is just struggle and misery.
-
I know that in my own personal life, the people who I have dated who are funny can get away with a lot more than the people who aren't.
-
There are many talented people who haven't fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.
-
You can be very famous without being a great actress, and that's not good for me.
-
I'm not good at dressing up fancy; I always just do my thing, which is whatever I'm in the mood for.
-
You show the world as a complete, unbroken chain, an eternal chain, linked together by cause and effect.
-
My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. I always had a mind for characters and dialogue, and my head was filled with that stuff, so it seemed like a good place to start.
