June 19, 2015 /

“Is emotional stability necessary to write well?” Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 21, Ernest Hemingway (1954)

Hemingways and AvaGardner
Ernest Hemingway, Mary Welsh Hemingway, Ava Gardner

INTERVIEWER

Is emotional stability necessary to write well? You told me once that you could only write well when you were in love. Could you expound on that a bit more?

HEMINGWAY

What a question. But full marks for trying. You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or rather you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love. If it is all the same to you I would rather not expound on that.

via Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 21, Ernest Hemingway.

Ava Gardner, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Ernest Hemingway, Mary Rupert Bellville and others at a luncheon at Costa del Sol, Andalusia, Spain
Ava Gardner, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Ernest Hemingway, Mary Rupert Bellville and others at a luncheon at Costa del Sol, Andalusia, Spain

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TagsA Farewell to Arms Ava Gardner Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls Is emotional stability necessary to write well Paris Review the best writing is certainly when you are in love The Old Man and the Sea The Sun Also Rises

3 Comments

  1. erickeyswriter
    June 19, 2015

    I’ve often found that when I am writing a piece for someone, it goes better. Not always, but often.

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