Amy Hempel Quotes

Writer

Amy Hempel is an American writer renowned for her concise and profound short stories. Her work often delves into themes of interpersonal relationships, loneliness, and death, earning her acclaim from readers and critics alike.

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All Thinking Knows Ifs Stories I Can Sentences Writing Persons Men Mother People Want Dog Feels Firsts Happens Way Alive Bigs Body

Famous Amy Hempel Quotes

“Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person's going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don't give them one.”

Want Giving Writing Persons Reason Reading Next Minutes Taught Assuming Sentences Tricks Journalism Articles The Next One

Author:Amy Hempel

“As soon as I knew that I would be all right, I was sure that I was dead and didn't know it. I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. I waited for the moment that would snap me out of my seeming life.”

Knows Moments Would Be Moved Sentences Snaps Seeming

Book:The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

Source: The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

“I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence.”

Moved Sentences

Book:The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

Source: The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

“Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don't get all writerly: 'He opened the door.' There, it's open.”

Writing Sometimes Doors Sentences Flats

Author:Amy Hempel

“I assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line.”

People Stories Lines Levels Millions Hundred Sentences Sweeping

Author:Amy Hempel

“I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.”

Ifs Feels Writing Ends Stories Sentences Good Story

Author:Amy Hempel

“Obviously, in journalism, you're confined to what happens. And the tendency to embellish, to mythologize, it's in us. It makes things more interesting, a closer call. But journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one.”

Want Writing Happens Next Interesting Taught Sentences Tendencies Journalism Confined The Next One

Author:Amy Hempel

About the Author

Born: December 14, 1951
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 75

Books & Sources

The Collected Stories of Amy HempelRelated source material

Reasons to LiveRelated source material

The Dog of the Marriage: StoriesRelated source material

At the Gates of the Animal KingdomRelated source material

The Collected StoriesRelated source material

Tumble Home: A Novella and Short StoriesRelated source material

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