Maria Semple Quotes
Both 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' and my first novel, 'This One is Mine,' are pretty complex on a story level, and fun reads as a result.
Quotes to Explore
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It's nice to get any awards, whether it's lifetime achievement or the Keith Richards award for being alive one more year.
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I believe that if you eat well, you work even better.
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Both my parents are Scottish, and although I grew up in Canada after moving over, all of my family are proud to be Scots.
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I would definitely like to start a family because it's the most important thing in the world and what you should take care of, along with your friends and the people you love.
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I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.
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And you know when I was growing up, I knew I wanted to have kids, but I knew I didn't want to do it alone. Then once I was 41, 42, I had to accept that I probably wouldn't have kids unless I decided to adopt later on, but even then it would be with a partner.
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I got beat up up in Texas because my bootlaces were the wrong color.
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I never want to be anywhere else than in the rehearsal room. I mean, it's so lame to say, but it makes me supremely happy to work with people and to talk and invent and laugh.
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I think there are a very few pro-lifers who would say that a zygote in a petri dish is the equivalent of you or me; it's just younger. If you can say that without laughing, maybe you are a true pro-lifer. But I think most people are able or willing to make distinctions that show they maybe don't quite believe that.
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My beauty secret is... nothing! I don't drink too much water. I don't eat very well. Sometimes I cheat and grab some chocolate. The best thing is to eat what you want, but not very much.
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Culture is a little like dropping an Alka-Seltzer into a glass - you don't see it, but somehow it does something.
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My style is schizophrenic! One minute I'll be wearing bright girly dresses, and the next I'll be swinging towards more structured masculine things.
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I have to admit that I can't take a whole fig and eat it on its own as I would a peach or mango. It's just too much.
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I used to work in kitchens, doing 12 or more hours a day of physical labor, so today, eight to 12 hours of cooking, chatting or filming feels like a vacation. When I have a scheduled 'day off,' I spend several hours writing, then I clean until I crash from fatigue. I don't relax well.
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'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is one of the greatest films of all time.
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I don't know whether I want to improve religion or not. I prefer to get rid of it.
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I was trying to be Mary Tyler Moore. I loved her in 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'
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The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.
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A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.
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Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power.
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Regardless of what one's attitude towards prohibition may be, temperance is something against which, at a time of war, no reasonable protest can be made.
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Liz Benedict, a teacher of mine at Iowa, is the person who introduced me to James Salter's work.
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I'm not formal and I'm impatient. So I think my team would say that when she starts tapping her pen and the leg starts moving quickly, that it's time to move on. I'm not good at long, drawn-out kinds of sessions.
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Both 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' and my first novel, 'This One is Mine,' are pretty complex on a story level, and fun reads as a result.
