I believe that basically you write for two people; yourself to try to make it absolutely perfect; or if not that then wonderful. Then you write for who you love whether she can read or write or not and whether she is alive or dead.
— Ernest Hemingway to Arthur Mizener, 1950 Selected Letters, p. 694.
I got it from Hemingway on Writing which is a short and pleasant read I’m going through right now. It turns out Hemingway was 64 years ahead of me in his advice about who to write for.
3 replies on “Hemingway on Writing”
Couldn’t agree more: http://john.do/why/
But, I do like the thought of writing for loved ones too… the most immediate person(s) are my daughters.
[…] Q: Ernest Hemingway to Arthur Mizener, 1950 Selected Letters, p. 694.; via ma.tt: Hemingway on writing […]
Timothy Egan’s piece in the NY Times today on where Hemingway was happiest is pretty cool: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/opinion/haunted-by-hemingway.html?src=xps