My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I think one of the good things about writing novels is that you always start from scratch. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
In TV writing, I felt like Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians. There's so much more freedom in fiction writing. — 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
I think thats the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
And dialogue, I'm good at it, and it's because it's the only thing you have to work with in TV writing. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the… — 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… — 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… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I think because I try to keep things as real as I can, or I try to start from a place of… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
Being in writers' rooms turns you feral. You are swearing, you are going to very dark, mean places. You start out in… — 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… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I learned that comedy is born out of strong characters. I won't begin writing a character until I have a clear take… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
There's a happiness that comes from writing that I won't live without. — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
I drop my kid off at school and then race home, and its a very limited time. I can only do really… — 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
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
