Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel
Amy Hempelis an American short story writer and journalist. She teaches creative writing at Bennington College and University of Florida...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth14 December 1951
CountryUnited States of America
love-is calling
I thought, my love is so good, why isn't it calling the same thing back.
opportunity preparation luck
There's no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
happens knows
He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good.
dog writing numbers
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.
character people stories
I'm not first and foremost interested in story and the what-happens, but I'm interested in who's telling it and how they're telling it and the effects of whatever happened on the characters and the people.
beer car gone
When the beer is gone, so are they -- flexing their cars on up the boulevard.
reading writing giving
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.
lying mind peace-of-mind
For peace of mind, I will lie about any thing at any time.
trouble
nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.
writing ideas news-stories
I started writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself, circling it and getting closer. I had no idea how to write fiction. So I did journalism because there were rules I could learn. You can teach someone to write a news story. They might not write a great one, but you can teach that pretty easily.
love fantasy affair
A love affair begins with a fantasy. For instance, that the beloved will always be there.
writing interesting want
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.
chemistry veterinarian wanted
I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry.
needs stories lines
I've always known when I start a story what the last line is. It's always been the case, since the first story I ever wrote. I don't know how it's going to get there, but I seem to need the destination. I need to know where I end up. It never changes, ever.