Maria Semple
Maria Semple
Maria Keogh Semple is an American novelist and screenwriter. She is the author of This One Is Mineand Where'd You Go, Bernadette. Her television credits include Beverly Hills, 90210, Mad About You, Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development, Suddenly Susan and Ellen...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth17 June 1964
CountryUnited States of America
characters filled good grew head mind seemed
My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. I always had a mind for characters and dialogue, and my head was filled with that stuff, so it seemed like a good place to start.
My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world.
domestic favorite grounded slightly
My favorite kind of book is a domestic drama that's grounded in reality yet slightly unhinged.
early figure individual unique voice worldview
It was important for me early on to find the voice of each character and figure out what was unique about them and their individual worldview that I could use for comedy or conflict.
adapting hands last main mess novel problems work
Writing a novel is so hard, and there are so many problems that the last thing you're thinking about is adapting this mess you have on your hands as a movie. You just want to get it to work as a novel. That's your main focus.
felt freedom tv
In TV writing, I felt like Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians. There's so much more freedom in fiction writing.
doomed
If you're an artist and you're on Twitter, you are doomed to mediocrity.
believed books naive reading worth
In my high-minded and naive way, I believed the only books worth reading were the classics.
call concept escaping fluffy foreign means rides understood
I never understood the concept of a fluffy summer read. For me, summer reading means beaches, long train rides and layovers in foreign airports. All of which call for escaping into really long books.
anytime blown cursed men spent time watch writers
I'm consistently blown away by 'Mad Men.' Having spent so much time in the writers' room, I'm cursed in that anytime I watch something, I'm always calculating what the writers are up to.
failure imagination
I don't know if it's a failure of imagination on my part, but I'm not going to be writing about Paris in the 1800s. I feel like it would come off as just ludicrously uninformed, even if I did a lot of research.
became fifteen terms wrote
When I wrote for TV, I was always thinking in terms of character and story. After fifteen years, it became hard-wired in me.
feeling
'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' was surprisingly easy and fun to write because I was feeling such strong emotions.
copy europe graduated high pass traveling
When I graduated high school, I was one of many English-majors-to-be traveling through Europe with a copy of 'Let's Go Europe' in one hand, 'Anna Karenina' in the other, a Eurail pass for a bookmark.