Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel
Amy Hempelis an American short story writer and journalist. She teaches creative writing at Bennington College and University of Florida...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth14 December 1951
CountryUnited States of America
lying mind peace-of-mind
For peace of mind, I will lie about any thing at any time.
trouble
nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.
writing ideas news-stories
I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting closer. I had no idea how to write fiction. So I did journalism because there were rules I could learn. You can teach someone to write a news story. They might not write a great one, but you can teach that pretty easily.
love fantasy affair
A love affair begins with a fantasy. For instance, that the beloved will always be there.
writing interesting want
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.
chemistry veterinarian wanted
I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry.
needs stories lines
I've always known when I start a story what the last line is. It's always been the case, since the first story I ever wrote. I don't know how it's going to get there, but I seem to need the destination. I need to know where I end up. It never changes, ever.
writing stories ends
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.
mother accomplishment age
I had a mother I could only seem to please with verbal accomplishments of some sort or another. She read constantly, so I read constantly. If I used words that might have seemed surprising at a young age, she would recognize that and it would please her.
men ledges stories
Maybe this is not a come-down-from-the-ledge story. But I tell it with the thought that the woman on the ledge will ask herself a question, the question that occurred to that man in Bogota. He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good?
dark rivers bugs
I 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! Right now, never again!
imagine persons
It is possible to imagine a person so entirely that the image resists attempts to dislodge it.
waiting remember enjoy
He could not wait to get rid of them so he could enjoy remembering them.
character giving downtown
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.