Maria Semple

“'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' is an epistolary novel - one told in letters. I had no idea how much fun it would be, puzzling together the plot with letters and documents.”

“I try to begin with a strong grasp of my characters. Even if it's schematic, I need it clear in my head who these people are.”

“My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world.”

“My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. I always had a mind for characters and dialogue, and my head was filled with that stuff, so it seemed like a good place to...”

“Much of the time in the writer's room is spent working on story, and I was always challenging myself to make it more interesting, tighter and more surprising: to come at it sideways in a way...”

“I just feel like there's this illicit thrill in reading other people's mail and spying on their lives.”

“I don't know if it's a failure of imagination on my part, but I'm not going to be writing about Paris in the 1800s. I feel like it would come off as just ludicrously uninformed, even if I di...”

“In my high-minded and naive way, I believed the only books worth reading were the classics.”