Maria Semple Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee. It is a whole lot of trouble, and then not worth much after you get it.
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I'm just trying to have fun, and maybe the way I hold myself kind of freaks people out. I don't feel like an outsider, and I think my friends feel the same way I do. Now that we're playing to larger audiences, maybe we're weird to some people. But I'm trying to express what I am.
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My voice, I have to say, is kind of miraculous because I was born with a cleft palate.
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Archery requires very sensitive muscles.
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I went into acting as psychotherapy, and it's still a work in progress.
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My first paying job, when I was 15, I was a day camp counselor.
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Writing is always a restorative process. It's like paddling a kayak. When you're writing, you can't do anything else. You're in the space you're in. So, in that way, it's enormously centering and restorative.
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Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.
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I went from working with Spielberg to working with Clint Eastwood - I might as well just retire.
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I buy books, I have shelves of books. I love to read.
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Friendships are discovered rather than made.
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White lies keep social dignity intact and are far more prevalent than most people realize. Several studies have found that an average person is lied to from 10 to 200 times a day - mostly just to keep a conversation going, to avoid conflict, or to establish a connection with someone.
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One-newspaper towns are not good because all the surviving newspaper does is print money. They make 25 percent on their money every year, and if they go down to 22 percent, they start laying people off.
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I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.
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Slavery is now no where more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.
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Aglionby Academy was the number one reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away from boys because they were trouble. And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards.
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In order to depict a man one must understand him, and to understand him one must be like him; in order to portray his psychological activities one must be able to reproduce them in oneself. To understand a man one must have his nature in oneself.
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The very general occurrence of the homosexual in ancient Greece, and its wide occurrence today in some cultures in which such activity is not taboo suggests that the capacity of an individual to respond erotically to any sort of stimulus, whether it is provided by another person of the same or opposite sex, is basic in the species.
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I moved to L.A. to write and direct. I had no intentions of being in front of the camera.
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I will be up at 8 A.M. making spaghetti bolognese for Peter and Sophia's evening meal if I'm working that day. I may not get back for the evening, and I worry if I don't do that, then they won't eat anything.
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I used to be and I still am into psychology. I would like to be able to pursue something like that, but I don't know. The older I've gotten, the more endearing this business has become and I can't really imagine leaving it.
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Just as a very little fresh water is blown away by a storm of wind and dust, in like manner the good deeds, that we think we do in this life, are overwhelmed by the multitude of evils.
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My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television.
