This is why you must love life: one day you're offering up your social security number to the Russian Mafia; two weeks… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
When I'm writing a book, I draw from my immediate experience, and my books are therefore almost a snapshot of where I… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
The sooner you learn it's on you to make life interesting, the better off you'll be. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“We live a life of privilege. That doesn’t mean we can literally switch off these women, whose only fault was being born… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I felt so full of love for everything. But at the same time, I felt so hung out there to dry, like… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“All those people I didn't even know, I couldn't pick them out of a lineup if I had to, but they had… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“I was surrounded by the surgeons and residents and nurses who helped me stay alive when I was born blue and if… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Life is a stew, and pot is poop.If someone stirred even a teeny-bit of poop in the stew, would you really want… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“My whole life, I’ve been liked. Okay, I’ll say it: I’ve been adored. I don’t understand why, on account of my disgraceful… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I spend my whole life trying to put up a front to prevent people from seeing certain parts of me. Weirdly, when… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
That's right,' she told the girls. 'You are bored. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret about life.… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I can pinpoint that as the single happiest moment of my life, because I realized then that Mom would always have my… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“The drivers here are horrible. And by horrible, I mean they don't realize I have someplace to be.” — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Just because it's complicated, just because you think you can't ever know everything about another person, it doesn't mean you can't try.” — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
You come out into the world after a season of TV and you're just swearing and saying mean things to people and they're looking… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Here’s something about Mom: she’s bad with annoyances, but great in a crisis. If a waiter doesn’t refill her water after she’s asked three… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Parking in Seattle is an eight-step process. Step one, find a place to park (gooood luuuuck!). Step two, back into the angled parking space… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Eleanor's heart giggled with mad abundance: so much to share, so much goodwill, so many notes to compare, so many ways to help and… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
After decades spent in rewrite rooms surrounded by other shouting writers, I discovered that I work best alone. I like being in charge of… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Ten years ago I saw a documentary on the siege of that Moscow theater. After just forty-eight hours of the terrorists confining the hostages… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
When I'm sitting at my computer writing, I really have this fiendish smile on my face. I am not thinking about the past or… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“Every single iceberg filled me with feelings of sadness and wonder. Not thoughts of sadness and wonder, mind you, because thoughts require a thinker,… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“The sight of Elgie flat on the slimy dock, groaning "My wife, my wife", with a gun pointed at him, and me jumping up… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
Maggie Shipstead's prose is so graceful and muscular, so dazzling, so sure-handed and fearless, that at times I had to remind myself to breathe.… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
