Ernest Hemingway Quotes
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So this was how you died, in whispers that you did not hear.
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Everything you have is to give. Thou art a phenomenon of philosophy and an unfortunate man.
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For what are we born if not to aid one another?
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We have very primitive emotions,” he said . “It's impossible not to be competitive. Spoils everything, though.
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But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.
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That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.
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The great artist when he comes, uses everything that has been discovered or known about his art up to that point, being able to accept or reject in a time so short it seems that the knowledge was born with him, rather than that he takes instantly what it takes the ordinary man a lifetime to know, and then the great artist goes beyond what has been done or known and makes something of his own.
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When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.
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Take a good rest, small bird," he said. "Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.
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I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.
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Those who say they want to be writers, and aren’t writing, don’t.
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Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.
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There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.
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It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people.
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You are all a lost generation. [with credit to Gertrude Stein]
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Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it.
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Please tell me what can I do. There must be something I can do
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Develop a built-in bullshit detector.
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Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.
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God knows I didn't mean to fall in love with her
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You're awfully dark, brother," he said. "You don't know how dark.
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Love is infinitely more endurable than hate.
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You make something from things that have happened and from things that exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, and you make something through your invention that is truer than anything true and alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.
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As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.