Book Quote by Amy Hempel

Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed.

— Amy Hempel

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

“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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“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

An idea might spark an essay, but never a story.

— Amy Hempel

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

The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me.

— Amy Hempel