American - Novelist | May 21, 1964 -
And dialogue, I'm good at it, and it's because it's the only thing you have to work with in TV writing.
Maria Semple
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On my walks, that's when the good ideas come. The kind of hard, gritty work is when you're sitting at the computer and it's kind of intense and you're kind of in super control of it - the walks are when you let go. That's when the really big breakthroughs come in, and it's very strange.
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In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the plot forward.
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My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world.
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'Mad About You' fit my sensibility the most of any show that I worked on, and as a result, it was really fun. It felt like a very natural fit.
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I think because I try to keep things as real as I can, or I try to start from a place of reality, I almost don't have the imagination to write a book that's not set where I am.
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I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing.
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After decades spent in rewrite rooms surrounded by other shouting writers, I discovered that I work best alone. I like being in charge of my time, working out the problems according to my own rhythms and being able to nap. That's a big one, the napping on demand!
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An artist must create. If she doesn't, she will become a menace to society.
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There's a happiness that comes from writing that I won't live without.
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My first novel didn't sell well. It was really painful and humiliating and shocking to me.
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My strength as a TV writer was my total lack of interest in television.
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