Maria Semple quotes

I keep an elaborate calendar for my characters detailing on which dates everything happens. Im 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. (Maria Semple)
I'm not too good when exposed to people.
Maria Semple
Ruthless concern with story is what I learned in television.
Maria Semple
I think because I try to keep things as real as I can, or I try to start from a place of reality, I almost don't have the imagination to write a book that's not set where I am.
Maria Semple
My talent isn't so much in traditional research as in finding really smart people and badgering them with questions.
Maria Semple
When you need a good laugh, do you reach for a book? I don't. I expect books to move me deeply and submerge me in another reality. So when a novel makes me roar with laughter, it's always a delightful surprise.
Maria Semple
We need to preserve our neighborhoods, our small business, our local economy.
Maria Semple
'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.
Maria Semple
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!
Maria Semple
I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing.
Maria Semple
There's a happiness that comes from writing that I won't live without. (Maria Semple)
My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television.
Maria Semple
I drop my kid off at school and then race home, and its 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 dont go running or hard hiking.
Maria Semple
I'd say I never considered myself a great architect. I'm more of a creative problem solver with good taste and a soft spot for logistical nightmares.
Maria Semple