I thought, my love is so good, why isn't it calling the same thing back. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
He could not wait to get rid of them so he could enjoy remembering them. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
There's no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. — Amy Hempel Luck Copy Share Image
They say the smart dog obeys but the smarter dog knows when to disobey. — Amy Hempel Animal Copy Share Image
I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
We can only die in the future, I thought; right now we are always alive. — Amy Hempel Alive Copy Share Image
I exaggerated even before I began to exaggerate, because it's true — nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be. — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
When my mother died, my father's early widowhood gave him social cachet he would not have had if they had divorced. He… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“I like radio personalities, and I like to change lanes. And losing yourself on the freeway is like living at the beach--you're… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“Mrs. Linden was beautiful in spirit and in fact. Her wish, she told her daughter, was to be a beautiful woman and… — Amy Hempel Beautiful woman Copy Share Image
“I think it was that love that I loved. That kind of involvement was reassuring; I felt it would extend to me,… — Amy Hempel Love Copy Share Image
“A story happens when two equally appealing forces, or characters, or ideas try to occupy the same place at the same time,… — Amy Hempel Story 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
Sometimes I can better describe a person by another person's reaction. In a story in my first book, I couldn't think of… — Amy Hempel Better person Copy Share Image
“The neighborhood drug dealer kicks out his wife. He moves in a girlfriend and the wife finds out. The wife lets herself… — Amy Hempel Community Copy Share Image
I have written letters that are failures, but I have written few, I think, that are lies. Trying to reach a person… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
I know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
Maybe this is not a come-down-from-the-ledge story. But I tell it with the thought that the woman on the ledge will ask… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
There’s so much I can’t read because I get so exasperated. Someone starts describing the character boarding the plane and pulling the… — Amy Hempel Copy Share Image
“I read about a famous mystery writer who worked for one week in a department store. One day she saw a woman… — Amy Hempel Writing Copy Share Image
“It is such a pretty story, told to me by a Cuban woman I met in a bar at the beach. She… — Amy Hempel Dark eyes 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
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
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
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
“Tell me things I won't mind forgetting," she said. 'Make it useless stuff or skip it.” — Amy Hempel Forgetting 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
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
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
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
I could claim any number of high-flown reasons for writing, just as you can explain certain dogs behavior... But maybe, it’s that… — Amy Hempel Animal Copy Share Image
