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 HempelThe worst of it is over now, and I can't say that I am glad. Lose that sense of lossโyou 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, "โthree," and years later, "Three," she will say, "โfour.
Amy HempelI meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark.
Amy HempelI assemble stories-me and a hundred million other people-at the sentence level. Not by coming up with a sweeping story line.
Amy HempelI have written letters that are failures, but I have written few, I think, that are lies. Trying to reach a person means asking the same question over and over again: Is this the truth, or not? I begin this letter to you, then, in the western tradition. If I understand it, the western tradition is: Put your cards on the table.
Amy Hempel