Maria Semple Quotes & Sayings

“My talent isn't so much in traditional research as in finding really smart people and badgering them with questions.”

“I keep an elaborate calendar for my characters detailing on which dates everything happens. I'm constantly revising this as I go along. It gives me the freedom to intricately plot my story, knowing it will at least hold up on a timeline.”

“I drop my kid off at school and then race home, and it's a very limited time. I can only do really serious writing for a couple of hours. And then I always go on a walk, I do a one-to-two-hour walk; I don't go running or hard hiking.”

“I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing.”

“After decades spent in rewrite rooms surrounded by other shouting writers, I discovered that I work best alone. I like being in charge of my time, working out the problems according to my own rhythms and being able to nap. That's a big one, the napping on demand!”

“'Mad About You' fit my sensibility the most of any show that I worked on, and as a result, it was really fun. It felt like a very natural fit.”

“My first novel didn't sell well. It was really painful and humiliating and shocking to me.”

“My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television.”

“Ruthless concern with story is what I learned in television.”

“I think a novel has to be about where you are at a given moment in time. I think it really needs to represent some specific pain you're going through. it's not just a story.”