A biography for Maria Semplehasn’t been written yet.
“Fast, Cheap, Good: Pick Two.”
“I can only do really serious writing for a couple of hours. And then I always go on a walk. I do a one-to-two-hour walk; I don't go running or hard hiking.”
“When you need a good laugh, do you reach for a book? I don't. I expect books to move me deeply and submerge me in another reality. So when a novel makes me roar with laughter, it's always a delightful surprise.”
“My summer reading suggestion: Pick a really famous, really long novel.”
“This is Seattle. We're supposed to have superior taste.”
“'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' was surprisingly easy and fun to write because I was feeling such strong emotions.”
“Much of the time in the writer's room is spent working on story, and I was always challenging myself to make it more interesting, tighter and more surprising: to come at it sideways in a way that the audience wasn't expecting.”
“In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the plot forward.”
“When you become a parent, that's a whole new level of life intruding. Nobody tells you how boring and time-sucking it's going to be! Or how the responsibility feels like an airbag going off in your life.”
“Ruthless concern with story is what I learned in television.”
“I learned that comedy is born out of strong characters. I won't begin writing a character until I have a clear take on them.”
“My first novel didn't sell well. It was really painful and humiliating and shocking to me.”
“My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like I'm going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life.”
“My talent isn't so much in traditional research as in finding really smart people and badgering them with questions.”
“I attended TED in 2007 and 2008, the last two years the conference was held in Monterey.”
“My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world.”
“I survived many a youth hostel bunk room reading Tolstoy by flashlight.”
“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.”
“When I wrote for TV, I was always thinking in terms of character and story. After fifteen years, it became hard-wired in me.”
“I'd say I never considered myself a great architect. I'm more of a creative problem solver with good taste and a soft spot for logistical nightmares.”