Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don't get all writerly: 'He opened the door.' There, it's open. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I could claim any number of high-flown reasons for writing, just as you can explain certain dogs behavior... But maybe, it’s that… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“It’s the natural trajectory of a writing career that a writer becomes better at being herself.” — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
Obviously, in journalism, you're confined to what happens. And the tendency to embellish, to mythologize, it's in us. It makes things more… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting closer. I had no idea… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“It comes back to the question, whom are you writing for? Who are the readers you want? Who are the people you… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can think to do to it.… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“I read about a famous mystery writer who worked for one week in a department store. One day she saw a woman… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
Since his mother died I have seen him steam a cucumber thinking it was zucchini. That's the kind of thing that turns my heart… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
“A story happens when two equally appealing forces, or characters, or ideas try to occupy the same place at the same time, and they're… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
“It is such a pretty story, told to me by a Cuban woman I met in a bar at the beach. She left the… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so I read… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
“Mrs. Linden was beautiful in spirit and in fact. Her wish, she told her daughter, was to be a beautiful woman and surprise people… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
Then the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
“It comes back to the question, whom are you writing for? Who are the readers you want? Who are the people you want to… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
There’s so much I can’t read because I get so exasperated. Someone starts describing the character boarding the plane and pulling the seat back.… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me. — Amy Hempel Copy Share
“The psychic said I would have two children. This makes me shake my head. I know you are not supposed to leave a baby… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
“I read about a famous mystery writer who worked for one week in a department store. One day she saw a woman come in… — Amy Hempel Copy Share
