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
I exaggerated even before I began to exaggerate, because it's true - nothing is ever quite as bad as it could be.
— Amy Hempel
A love affair begins with a fantasy. For instance, that the beloved will always be there.
— Amy Hempel
I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark.
— Amy Hempel
Dreams: the place most of us get what we need.
— Amy Hempel
Look at me. My concerns-are they spiritual, do you think, or carnal? Come on. We've read our Shakespeare.
— Amy Hempel
I moved through the days like a severed head that finishes a sentence. — Amy Hempel
I get rational when I panic. — Amy Hempel
Consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless. — Amy Hempel
Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater. — Amy Hempel
There's no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. — Amy Hempel
When the beer is gone, so are they flexing their cars on up the boulevard. — Amy Hempel
'At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom' by Amy Hempel showed me the lean quality of prose. — Chuck Palahniuk
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
My job ... I do nothing, it pays nothing, but - you guessed it - it's better than nothing. — Amy Hempel
I often feel the effects of people only after they leave me. — Amy Hempel
I believe that 99 percent of what anyone does can effectively be postponed. — Amy Hempel
I assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line. — Amy Hempel
Tell me things I won't mind forgetting, she said. 'Make it useless stuff or skip it. — Amy Hempel
I sleep with a glass of water on the nightstand so I can see by its level if the coastal earth is trembling or if the shaking is still me. — Amy Hempel
An idea might spark an essay, but never a story. — Amy Hempel
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
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
Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed. — Amy Hempel
Just once in my lifeoh, when have I ever wanted anything just once in my life? — Amy Hempel
And it was the first time that I believed the claim that you can help a person more by asking them the right question than by giving them the answer. — Amy Hempel
We can only die in the future, I thought; right now we are always alive. — Amy Hempel
Wear your heart on the page, and people will read to find out how you solved being alive. — Amy Hempel
It's the natural trajectory of a writing career that a writer becomes better at being herself. — Amy Hempel
It is possible to imagine a person so entirely that the image resists attempts to dislodge it. — Amy Hempel
I'm not good at small talk; I'm not good at big talk; and medium talk just doesn't come up. — Amy Hempel
I wanted to be a veterinarian, but slipped up when I hit organic chemistry. — Amy Hempel
I leave a lot out when I tell the truth. The same when I write a story. — Amy Hempel
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
I want to know everything about you, so I tell you everything about myself. — Amy Hempel
The year I began to say vahz instead of vase, a man I barely knew nearly accidentally killed me. — Amy Hempel
Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don't get all writerly: 'He opened the door.' There, it's open. — Amy Hempel
