I often feel the effects of people only after they leave me. Amy Hempel More Quotes by Amy Hempel More Quotes From Amy Hempel I get rational when I panic. Amy Hempel rational panic I'm not good at small talk; I'm not good at big talk; and medium talk just doesn't come up. Amy Hempel mediums come-up bigs The worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of loss—you have gone and lost something else. But the body moves toward health. The mind, too, in steps. One step at a time. Ask a mother who has just lost a child, How many children do you have? "Four," she will say, "—three," and years later, "Three," she will say, "—four. Amy Hempel mother children moving An idea might spark an essay, but never a story. Amy Hempel stories might ideas The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me. Amy Hempel vases men years Journalism taught me how to write a sentence that would make someone want to read the next one. You are trained to get rid of anything nonessential. You go in, you start writing your article, assuming a person's going to stop reading the minute you give them a reason. So the trick is: don't give them one. Amy Hempel reading writing giving I could claim any number of high-flown reasons for writing, just as you can explain certain dogs behavior... But maybe, it’s that they’re dog, and that’s what dogs do. Amy Hempel dog writing numbers It is possible to imagine a person so entirely that the image resists attempts to dislodge it. Amy Hempel imagine persons He could not wait to get rid of them so he could enjoy remembering them. Amy Hempel enjoy waiting remember I leave a lot out when I tell the truth Amy Hempel telling-the-truth 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. Amy Hempel downtown giving character The only time the word baby doesn't scare me is the time that it should, when it is what a man calls me. Amy Hempel scare baby men I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can think to do to it. And since I know at the start what the last line will be, I know when I've reached that point as logically as I can that it's finished. As for the rewriting-it's not foolproof, of course, but if you're honest about having thought of every possibility and you still come back to what you have, what more can you do? Amy Hempel lines writing thinking A five-hour flight works out to three days and nights on land, by rail, from sea to shining sea. You can chalk off the hours on the back of the seat ahead. But seventy-some hours will not seem so long to you if you tell yourself first: This is where I am going to be for the rest of my natural life. Amy Hempel land sea night I think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands. In the course of the experiment, that chimp had a baby. Imagine how her trainers must have thrilled when the mother, without prompting, began to sign her newborn. Baby, drink milk. Baby, play ball. And when the baby died, the mother stood over the body, her wrinkled hands moving with animal grace, forming again and again the words: Baby, come hug, Baby come hug, fluent now in the language of grief. Amy Hempel grief mother baby 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 sentences moments would-be I thought, my love is so good, why isn't it calling the same thing back. Amy Hempel calling love-is And I see that not touching for so long was a drive to the beach with the windows rolled up so the waves feel that much colder. Amy Hempel touching beach long I know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat of it, everything looks as valuable as everything else. But, because nothing looks worth the bother, not even your life. Amy Hempel home looks thinking I think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands. Amy Hempel talking hands thinking
