The only time the word baby doesn't scare me is the time that it should, when it is what a man calls… — Amy Hempel Baby Copy Share Image
Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive. — Amy Hempel Alive Copy Share Image
I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry. — Amy Hempel Chemistry Copy Share Image
What I think," Chatty says, "is that if a man loves a woman more than a woman loves a man, then they're… — Amy Hempel Feminism Copy Share Image
I'm not good at small talk; I'm not good at big talk; and medium talk just doesn't come up. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
It is possible to imagine a person so entirely that the image resists attempts to dislodge it. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark. — Amy Hempel Giving Copy Share Image
I assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I think you would like Warren. He drinks Courvoisier in a Coke can, and has a laugh like you'd find in a… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I am not quite myself, I think.But who here is quite himself? And yet there is a way in which we are… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
And I see that not touching for so long was a drive to the beach with the windows rolled up so the… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“You will stand in line for snacks behind good clothes on bad bodies, behind the man who is so drunk he has… — 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 had my own bed. I slept in it alone, except for those times when we needed—not sex—but sex was how we… — Amy Hempel Love Copy Share Image
The worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss—you have gone… — Amy Hempel Body Copy Share Image
I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so… — Amy Hempel Accomplishment Copy Share Image
I probably have less revision than those who have that wonderful rush of story to tell - you know, I can't wait… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“Before I took to the road, a friend tried to get me to go to a department store with him. He said… — Amy Hempel Friendship 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 Fiction 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
“The women advised long walks. They told the wife to watch the sun rise and set, to look for solace in the… — Amy Hempel Long walks Copy Share Image
“A famous artist is approached by a student. "You don't remember me," the student says correctly, "but years ago you said something… — Amy Hempel Art Copy Share Image
Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
My job ... I do nothing, it pays nothing, but - you guessed it - it's better than nothing. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
A love affair begins with a fantasy. For instance, that the beloved will always be there. — Amy Hempel Affair Copy Share Image
“Tell me things I won't mind forgetting," she said. 'Make it useless stuff or skip it.” — Amy Hempel Forgetting Copy Share Image
When the beer is gone, so are they -- flexing their cars on up the boulevard. — Amy Hempel Beer Copy Share Image
The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
Look at me. My concerns-are they spiritual, do you think, or carnal? Come on. We've read our Shakespeare. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“I believe that 99 percent of what anyone does can effectively be postponed.” — Amy Hempel Postponed Copy Share Image
“It’s the natural trajectory of a writing career that a writer becomes better at being herself.” — Amy Hempel Nature Copy Share Image
Just once in my life--oh, when have I ever wanted anything just once in my life? — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
The worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss--you have gone… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I'm not first and foremost interested in story and the what-happens, but I'm interested in who's telling it and how they're telling… — Amy Hempel Character 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… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
The other day I was playing Scrabble. I saw that I could close the space in D-E- -Y. I had an N… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
