Amy HempelSometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don't get all writerly: 'He opened the door.' There, it's open.371Time
Amy HempelThey say the smart dog obeys but the smarter dog knows when to disobey. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.32, Simon and Schuster351Philosophy
Amy HempelThe worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss—you have gone and lost something else. But the body moves toward health. The mind, too, in ste… ▶352ThoughtTime
Amy HempelI often feel the effects of people only after they leave me. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.253, Simon and Schuster352Humanity
Amy HempelI leave a lot out when I tell the truth ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.106, Simon and Schuster375Truth
Amy HempelSometimes I can better describe a person by another person's reaction. In a story in my first book, I couldn't think of a way to sufficiently describe the charisma of a certain bo… ▶333ReadingThoughtTime
Amy HempelI assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line.377Humanity
Amy HempelI 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 jus… ▶334Humanity
Amy HempelI sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). T… ▶323Humor
Amy HempelI probably have less revision than those who have that wonderful rush of story to tell - you know, I can't wait to tell you what happened the other day. It comes tumbling out and … ▶378Thought
Amy HempelI think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.40, Simon and Schuster346Thought
Amy HempelThe year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.103,… ▶303Death
Amy HempelThen the children went to bed, or at least went upstairs, and the men joined the women for a cigarette on the porch, absently picking ticks engorged like grapes off the sleeping d… ▶281Thought
Amy HempelDreams: the place most of us get what we need. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.355, Simon and Schuster359Time
Amy HempelJust once in my life--oh, when have I ever wanted anything just once in my life? ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.373, Simon and Schus… ▶315Life
Amy HempelI think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands. In the course of the experiment, that chimp had a baby. Imagine how her trainers must have thrilled when the mother, without … ▶316DeathSadnessThought
Amy HempelThe worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss--you have gone and lost something else. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected S… ▶261Thought
Amy HempelWhat I think, Chatty says, is that if a man loves a woman more than a woman loves a man, then they're even. ✨ Amy Hempel (1997). Tumble Home: A Novella and Short Stories, Sc… ▶317LoveReadingThought
Amy Hempelif it's true your life flashes past your eyes before you die, then it is also the truth that your life rushes forth when you are ready to start to truly be alive. ✨ Amy Hemp… ▶241DeathLifeReading
Amy HempelJust because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.8, Simon and Schuster… ▶264Humanity
Amy HempelI want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself. ✨ Amy Hempel (2006). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.261, Simon and Schuster275Humanity
Amy HempelWhen my mother died, my father's early widowhood gave him social cachet he would not have had if they had divorced. He was a bigger catch for the sorrow attached. ✨ Amy Hemp… ▶242DeathSadness
Amy HempelI moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.106, Simon and Schuster254Philosophy
Amy HempelIt was like that class at school where the teacher talks about Realization, about how you could realize something big in a commonplace thing. The example he gave--and the liar sai… ▶298DeathThought
Amy HempelThere’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 ha… ▶232Reading
Amy HempelI meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark. ✨ Amy Hempel, Rick Moody (2007). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel… ▶287Thought
Amy Hempelconsolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless. ✨ Amy Hempel (2006). The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, p.270, Simon and Schu… ▶267Reading
Amy HempelI would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark where hundreds of lightning bugs blink this code in sequence: right here, nowhere else… ▶268Time
Amy HempelA five-hour flight works out to three days and nights on land, by rail, from sea to shining sea. You can chalk off the hours on the back of the seat ahead. But seventy-some hours … ▶258Life
Amy HempelI know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat of it, everything looks as valuable as everything else. But, because n… ▶225LifeThought
