As soon as I knew that I would be all right, I was sure that I was dead and didn't know it. I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. I waited for the moment that would snap me out of my seeming life. Amy Hempel More Quotes by Amy Hempel More Quotes From Amy Hempel 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! Amy Hempel lightning dark rivers 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. Amy Hempel accomplishment age mother The other day I was playing Scrabble. I saw that I could close the space in D-E- -Y. I had an N and an F. Which do you think I chose? What was the word I made? Amy Hempel scrabble space thinking I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. Amy Hempel moved sentences I 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 maybe then they go back and refine. I kind of envy that way of working, but I just have never done it. Amy Hempel tumbling envy waiting 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? Amy Hempel ledges stories men Then 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 dogs. And when the men kissed the women good night, and their weekend whiskers scratched the women's cheeks, the women did not think shave, they thought stay. Amy Hempel good-night dog children All those years on the psychiatrist's couch and suddenly the couch is moving. Good God, she is on that couch when the big one hits. Maidy didn't tell you, but you know what her doctor said? She sprang from the couch and said, "My God, was that an earthquake?" The doctor said this: "Did it feel like an earthquake to you? Amy Hempel doctors years moving He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good. Amy Hempel knows happens When the beer is gone, so are they -- flexing their cars on up the boulevard. Amy Hempel car gone beer My job ... I do nothing, it pays nothing, but - you guessed it - it's better than nothing. Amy Hempel work pay jobs A love affair begins with a fantasy. For instance, that the beloved will always be there. Amy Hempel affair fantasy love For peace of mind, I will lie about any thing at any time. Amy Hempel peace-of-mind mind lying I am not quite myself, I think.But who here is quite himself? And yet there is a way in which we are all more ourselves than ever, I suppose. Amy Hempel way thinking nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be. Amy Hempel trouble 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. Amy Hempel want writing interesting What 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 ifs men thinking consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless. Amy Hempel skins hurt beautiful Since his mother died I have seen him steam a cucumber thinking it was zucchini. That's the kind of thing that turns my heart right over. Amy Hempel mother heart thinking Look at me. My concerns-are they spiritual, do you think, or carnal? Come on. We've read our Shakespeare. Amy Hempel spiritual looks thinking
