In Hemingway’s Words — 13 Quotes On His Life and Love of Writing Ian Canon Follow Jan 9 · 4 min read

Photo In The Public Domain, Released by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Hemingway wasn’t known to talk about writing, believing it to be some mysterious force that, if it were to be talked about, could dry up at the source.

He didn’t want to jinx himself — and I can see, somewhat, where he’s coming from. When you’re in a good flow state, when nothing matters but the flow of the words, there seems to be magic coming out of the tips of your fingers.

I can’t explain it. It’s naturally, inherently, and beautifully mysterious.

But Hemingway was still caught, here and there, in private moments and in letters, talking about the thing he loved most: writing.

Here are 13 quotes from Hemingway, ranging from what a writer is, to how a writer should work.

A Writer Only Needs Two Things From You

“Only two things you can do for an artist. Give him money or show his stuff. These are the only two impersonal needs.” — to Ernest Walsh, 1926

The Secret Of Writing — What it really is

“Nobody really knows or understands and nobody has ever said the secret. The secret is that it is poetry written into prose and it is the hardest of all things to do…” — from Mary Hemingway, How It was

Politics and Writers

“… a writer can make himself a nice career while he is alive by espousing a political cause, working for it, making a profession of believing in it, and if it wins he will be very well placed. All politics is a matter of working hard without reward, or with a living wage for a time, in the hope of booty later. A man can be a Fascist or a Communist and if his outfit gets in he can get to be an ambassador or have a million copies of his books printed by the Government or any of the other rewards the boys dream about. Because the literary revolution boys are all ambitious.” — By-Line: Ernest Hemingway

What Qualities Make Up A Writer

“A good writer should know as near everything as possible. Naturally he will not. He has … the ability to learn in a quicker ratio to the passage of time than other men and without conscious application, and with an intelligence to accept or reject what is already presented as knowledge.” — from Death in the Afternoon

The Challenge Of Writing

“… writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I have ever done—so I do it. And it makes me happy when I do it well.” — to Ivan Kashkin, 1935

Write What You Know

“… whatever success I have had has been through writing what I know about.” — to Maxwell Perkins, 1928

Don’t Stop Listening — Advice To Young Writers

“A long time ago you stopped listening except to the answers to your own questions. … That’s what dries a writer up (we all dry up. That’s no insult to you in person) not listening. That is where it all comes from. Seeing, listening. You see well enough. But you stop listening.” — to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1934

Writing Habits

“Ordinarily I never read anything before I write in the morning to try and bite on the old nail with no help, no influence and no one giving you a wonderful example or sitting looking over your shoulder.” — to Bernard Berenson, 1952

On Character

“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” — Death in the Afternoon, p. 191

Writing Straight and True

“I can write it like Tolstoi and make the book seem larger, wiser, and all the rest of it. But then I remember that was what I always skipped ion Tolstoi. … It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can’t do it.” — to Maxwell Perkins

On Slang

“For instance I am guilty of using “swell” in writing. But only in dialogue; not as an adjective to replace the word you should use. Try and write straight English; never using slang except in Dialogue and then only when unavoidable. Because all slang goes sour in a short time.” — to Carol Hemingway, 1929

On Dostoyevsky

“I’ve been wondering about Dostoyevsky,” I said. “How can a man write so badly, so unbelievably badly, and make you feel so deeply.” — A Moveable Feast, p. 137.

On Titles