Maria Semple Quotes

I can only do really serious writing for a couple of hours. And then I always go on a walk. I do a one-to-two-hour walk; I don't go running or hard hiking.

Maria Semple

• Writing
• Running
• Serious
• Couple
• Hiking

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• I'm just a black hole for stuff. No one should ever hand me anything, because I get so easily distracted. I'll be like, 'Oh, look, something shiny!' I'm glad I never learned how to drive. I would be really dangerous.

  

  Florence Welch Florence and the Machine
  • Learned
  • Dangerous
  • Drive

• Nothing is unfilmable.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • Nothing

• On my mother's side, I'm English, so that's where the freckles come from. On my father's side, I'm German, and he has the fantastic olive hues... I was given mum's skin, whereas my brothers and sisters were given my dad's skin. I do tan up quite well, but it takes me a bit longer.

  

  Dan Feuerriegel
  • Father
  • Fantastic
  • Brothers

• I shall produce nothing that will offend the proprieties, whether applied to children or grownups. My pictures are turned out with clean hands and, therefore, with a clear conscience which, like virtue, is its own reward.

  

  Fatty Arbuckle
  • Children
  • Hands
  • Reward

• Physical bravery is an animal instinct; moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.

  

  Wendell Phillips
  • Moral
  • Courage
  • Animal

• I've had the experience of having a book praised but then it doesn't sell. Or not praised but then it sells.

  

  Gail Sheehy
  • Experience
  • Book
  • Sell

• I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.

  

  Orson Welles
  • Work
  • Money
  • Think

• The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.

  

  Utada Hikaru
  • People
  • Up
  • Different

• It's really hard for kids nowadays: you can get a decent education, but there are no jobs out there. You worry about how they are ever going to afford to live anywhere.

  

  Gary Lineker
  • Live
  • Kids
  • Education

• I do not support a North American Union. I disagree fundamentally with that, and I think the United States should be governing itself and not being governed by multilateral unions, the United Nations.

  

  Sam Brownback
  • American
  • Think
  • Support

• You don't have to paint your walls lime green just to try to have your home feel decorated. If you're a classic dresser or preppy dresser or a modern dresser, you wear a lot of black - whatever it is - your home should reflect that as well.

  

  Nate Berkus
  • Home
  • Black
  • Green

• Though social eugenics was discredited long ago, we still often think of the genome in quasi-eugenic terms. When we read about the latest discovery of a link between a gene and a disease, we imagine that we've learned the cause of the disease, and we may even think we'll get a cure by fixing the gene.

  

  Gary Wolf
  • Long
  • May
  • Think

• Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don't know what happens up there in the mountains when you're growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time - 50 years I'd say.

  

  Queen Latifah
  • Up
  • Time
  • Long

• Newspapers are busily experimenting with different models. Traditionally, and I suspect in hindsight very mistakenly, online news was free. And once given free access readers felt it was their entitlement.

  

  Malcolm Turnbull
  • Different
  • Free
  • News

• If you're losing, just be a man; be a man and lose as a man.

  

  Marat Safin
  • Man
  • Lose
  • Losing

• Were women meant to do everything - work and have babies?

  

  Candice Bergen
  • Work
  • Women
  • Everything

• Every time you treat an Iraqi disrespectfully, you are working for the enemy.

  

  H. R. McMaster
  • Time
  • Enemy
  • Treat

• I want to be an activist professor.

  

  Tariq Ramadan
  • Want
  • Activist
  • Professor

• I saw something in the store the other day that I don't understand: that peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. Is there a point to that? I mean, I'm lazy-but I wanna meet the guy who needs that. Some guy going, "You know, I could go for a sandwich-but, uh, I'm not gonna open two jars. I can't be opening and closing all kinds of jars. Cleaning, who knows how many knives!?"

  

  Brian Regan
  • Guy
  • Funny
  • Comedy

• I'm not really into musicals.

  

  Christian Bale

• We should be writing more great roles for women, period. Another problem is that movies are generally made for 14-year-old boys, and 14-year-old boys want to watch 25-year-old action heroes.

  

  James Mangold
  • Great
  • Writing
  • Women

• I began observing, making paintings of my surroundings, taking a vow of silence, listening, composing music, writing, and making time for formal education. Then I started telling stories.

  

  John Francis
  • Time
  • Music
  • Writing

• I believe in strong legislation for the environment. So the only question is being smart enough and educated enough to scrutinize the people who are writing the legislation, because there are plenty of ulterior motives out there.

  

  Gregory Walter Graffin Bad Religion
  • People
  • Believe
  • Writing

• I can only do really serious writing for a couple of hours. And then I always go on a walk. I do a one-to-two-hour walk; I don't go running or hard hiking.

  

  Maria Semple
  • Writing
  • Running
  • Serious