Maria Semple Quotes
I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs to represent some specific pain you're going through. it's not just a story.
Quotes to Explore
-
Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.
-
A writer is a human being. He has to live with a sense of honor.
-
To be honest, proper recognition has only come from the fans. I don't want to be hard, and I don't want to be negative, but I want to be honest.
-
So yeah, I play the piano for most of the show, but I like rock and roll.
-
With a poetry book I can send 100 copies out to reviewers and other people, and even do it in advance and get their response. It's difficult with iPad: how do you send it out for free, and how do you even disseminate it before it goes into their store?
-
So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism.
-
Ohio has long been an embarrassment to charter-school supporters nationwide, with its trail of scandal and graft and abysmal student performance.
-
You feel it in there, pacing your heart sometimes, and it has what's called a defibrillator. Should I suffer that arhythmia, it's generally sudden death. And the paddles that are internal shock you back and restore your rhythm to its normal and natural state.
-
The lives of African-Americans in this country are characterized by violence for most of our history. Much of that violence, at least to some extent, you know, done by the very state that's supposed to protect them.
-
I am a control freak. I will admit that freely.
-
I would hate for my father to regret all his support that he's given me over the years and be embarrassed by anything I chose to do.
-
At the end of the spectrum when you get to that 12th step, when you have that spiritual awakening we make ourselves available to help other people.
-
You trivialize the idea of competition totally, then there's no point in having the competition in the first place, and everybody is getting a trophy.
-
I do this thing with my daughter - I put my hand on her face and shake her head, but really affectionately. But I didn't think, and I did that to Flea.
-
I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry.
-
There's some quality you get when you're not totally comfortable. When you're not doing what you're used to, you could completely fall on your face. You could completely blow it.
-
Being funny with a funny voice is more my comfort zone, a broader character that I try to humanize, a kind of silly or wacky persona that I try to fill in.
-
When you're rich you don't write checks.
-
A lot of sequins for New Year's! Red, green, white - I fail at all of that because I'm always in black. But for Christmas, I do love wearing cute dresses with tights and a pair of boots.
-
I've never felt that I've had some great fashion sense of my own - I tend to wear what my wife tells me to wear.
-
It takes some balls to live life to the fullest.
-
When I talk to people in need, they tell me they want to hope; they are eager for opportunity; they are ready for better days. And I can tell you that every time their hopes are disappointed, all nations lose.
-
I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs to represent some specific pain you're going through. it's not just a story.
