Amy Hempel Quotes
There’s so much I can’t read because I get so exasperated. Someone starts describing the character boarding the plane and pulling the seat back. And I just want to say, Babe, I have been downtown. I have been up in a plane. Give me some credit.
Hempel, Amy. Interview with Paul Winner. The Paris Review, no. 166, Summer 2003.
After being surrounded by the Germans for seven days at what would later be called the Battle of the Bulge, a German officer notified the Americans that they would accept their surrender. McAuliffe’s one word response summed up the resolve of the Americans who were surrounded. The Americans managed to hold the line and defeat the German’s last major offensive of World War II.
This began after the White House daily press briefings started to be televised. Many reporters do not want their network or station to broadcast the question and answer where another reporter asked the question. So he or she asks the same question and uses that video on their news broadcast where the public is not only provided with the question and answer, but is reminded of how the reporter is doing his/her job. It would be easy for the Press Secretary to refuse to answer a question that has already been asked and answered, but most press secretaries understand the dynamics of modern journalism and go along with the repetition to help the reporters out.
Amy Hempel is an American short story writer and journalist. She teaches creative writing at Stony Brook Southampton.
