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.

Filter quotes by topic

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

“I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself.”

Knows Want

Book:The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel

Source: The Collected Stories of 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. And I just want to say, Babe, I have been downtown. I have been up in a plane. Give me some credit.”

Want Giving Has Beens I Can Character Give Me Credit Planes Seats Pulling Describing Babe Downtown

Author:Amy Hempel

“I told him about the way they get to know you. Not the way people do, the way they flatter you by wanting to know every last thing about you, only it isn't a compliment, it is just efficient, a person getting more quickly to the end of you. Correction - dogs do want to know every last thing about you. They take in the smell of you, they know from the next room, asleep, when a mood settles over you. The difference is there's not an end to it.”

People Knows Way Want Persons Ends Lasts Next Differences Rooms Dog Smell Mood Settling Over You Compliment Efficient Corrections

Book:The Dog of the Marriage: Stories

Source: The Dog of the Marriage: Stories

“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

Similar Authors

George SaundersBrowse related quotes
Paul AusterBrowse related quotes
Stephen KingBrowse related quotes
Donald MillerBrowse related quotes
Sandra CisnerosBrowse related quotes
David LevithanBrowse related quotes
Chuck KlostermanBrowse related quotes
Taylor SwiftBrowse related quotes
John IrvingBrowse related quotes
Jodi PicoultBrowse related quotes