Motivation from Masters: Ernest Hemingway
July 3, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
If I can’t inspire you, maybe some successful writers can. Today’s Motivation from Masters post features Ernest Hemingway.
Don’t get discouraged because there’s a lot of mechanical work to writing…I rewrote the first part of Farewell to Arms at least fifty times. – Ernest Hemingway
By far, this is my favorite Hemingway quote about writing. It reminds me that the best work is only considered the best because of all the sweat and tears that go into it. Other quotes by him or from his books:
“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
“Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”
“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”
“I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.”
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
“There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.”
Image via WikiCommons.
