Thursday, August 5, 2010

Paris Review, Spring 1958-Ernest Hemingway/The Art of Fiction #21

Ernest Hemingway/Paris Review
(Interview conducted by George Plimpton for Issue 21, Spring 1958 of the Paris Review)

FROM THE INTERVIEW

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.  

(click here for the full PDF version of this slice of literary history, on the Paris Review website)

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