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Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961

Book by Ernest Hemingway · 17 quotes · Writing, Ifs, Book

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Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961 Quotes

“It is a miserable thing to have people writing about your private life while you are alive. I have tried to stop it all that I could but there have been many abuses by people I trusted. You cannot stop trusting people in life but I have learned to be a little bit careful. The way to make people trust-worthy is to trust them.”

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Book:Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961
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“I've seen a lot of patriots and they all died just like anybody else if it hurt bad enough and once they were dead their patriotism was only good for legends; it was bad for their prose and made them write bad poetry. If you are going to be a great patriot i.e. loyal to any existing order of government (not one who wishes to destroy the existing for something better) you want to be killed early if your life and works won't stink.”

IfsWantWritingMadeEnoughGovernmentOrderWishHurtDiedProsePatrioticLegendsLoyalPatriotIt HurtsSomething BetterStink
Book:Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961
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“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. I only use swear words, for example, that have lasted at least a thousand years for fear of getting stuff that will be simply timely and then go sour.”

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Book:Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961
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“You know that fiction, prose rather, is possibly the roughest trade of all in writing. You do not have the reference, the old important reference. You have the sheet of blank paper, the pencil, and the obligation to invent truer than things can be true. You have to take what is not palpable and make it completely palpable and also have it seem normal and so that it can become a part of experience of the person who reads it.”

KnowsWritingPersonsImportantSeemsFictionNormalPaperTradeObligationBeing TrueProseBlankSheetsPencilsTrue YouBlank Paper
Book:Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961
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