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
art people relate turning
I guess that's what art is: Turning something painful into something people can relate to.
form itself love novels presented wildly
I love epistolary novels and became wildly excited when the form presented itself to me.
good learned moving plot taught tv
In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the plot forward.
novelist novels took
I must say, it was a lot easier writing novels than I thought it would be. I think it's because I'm a novelist at heart, and it took me a while to figure that out.
joke shake watch
I'm not the comedy police, but you watch a movie, and everyone's laughing, and then you shake it out, and you realize, 'There's no joke there!'
begin grasp people
I try to begin with a strong grasp of my characters. Even if it's schematic, I need it clear in my head who these people are.
great huge people room running school slide telling
It's great to be able to just go with an idea and not have 10 people in a room telling me why I can't write in a huge mud slide at a school function with 50 kindergartners running around.
I know what it's like to feel snobby; I know what it's like to feel anxiety; I know what it's like to feel like busted because you're crazy.
thrill
I just feel like there's this illicit thrill in reading other people's mail and spying on their lives.
mind
I don't mind finding these ugly sides to my personality and exaggerating them because that's something you can write towards.
held ted
I attended TED in 2007 and 2008, the last two years the conference was held in Monterey.
Even when I was writing 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette,' I started to appreciate Seattle's many charms.
both complex reads
Both 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' and my first novel, 'This One is Mine,' are pretty complex on a story level, and fun reads as a result.
good tv work
And dialogue, I'm good at it, and it's because it's the only thing you have to work with in TV writing.