Ernest Hemingway

@ernest-hemingway · 7 positions · 0 changes of mind

American novelist (1899 to 1961), also a short-story writer and journalist; awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ernest Hemingway did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

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Our reading
No writer who knows of great writers who never received the Nobel Prize can accept it other than with humility

humility

Their wordsNo writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 1st of 7 in this piece
Our reading
What a writer puts into the work eventually becomes clear, and that plus craft decides whether the writer endures or is forgotten

Their wordsThings may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 2nd of 7 in this piece
Our reading
Writing at its best is a lonely life, and writers' organizations ease the loneliness but probably do not improve the writing

Their wordsWriting, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer’s loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 3rd of 7 in this piece
Our reading
A writer who gains public stature by shedding loneliness often produces worse work, because the work is done alone

Their wordsHe grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 4th of 7 in this piece
Our reading
Each book should be a new attempt at something beyond reach, never done before or tried by others and failed

Their wordsFor a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 5th of 7 in this piece
Our reading
Because great writers already exist, a writer is driven past what has been done, to where no one can help

Their wordsHow simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 6th of 7 in this piece
Our reading
A writer should write what they have to say, not speak it

Their wordsA writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.

↗Banquet speech, Nobel Prize in Literature 1954nobelprize.org 7th of 7 in this piece

How recent

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