When I'm sitting at my computer writing, I really have this fiendish smile on my face. I am not thinking about the… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs… — 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
“Because the other way wasn’t working. The waking up just to get the day over with until it was time for bed.… — 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
We were like the Beatles, Dad.' 'I know you think that, sweetie' 'Seriously. Mom is John, you're Paul, I'm George, and Ice… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
“What behavior did you observe?” Nick asked when he got back. “The penguins that spent most of their time fighting were the… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I can't tell you the number of times I've been in the middle of a perfunctory conversation, and someone will say, 'Tell… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I drop my kid off at school and then race home, and it's a very limited time. I can only do really… — 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
