A writer of fiction is really... a congenital liar who invents from his own knowledge or that of other men.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that fiction writers create stories from imagination and experience, often bending the truth.
Ernest Hemingway's quote reflects the nature of a fiction writer's craft, implying that writers are not merely recounting reality; instead, they are drawing upon their own experiences and the knowledge of others to fabricate narratives. This 'lying' is not a moral failing but rather an essential part of storytelling that allows for creativity and exploration of human experience beyond factual recounting.
In practice
In a speech about the power of storytelling, one might quote Hemingway to emphasize the importance of imagination in writing.
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.
There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
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.
Art defies defeat by its very existence, representing the celebration of life, in spite of all attempts to degrade and destroy it.
All architecture has a public nature, I believe, so I would like to make a public space.
The most annoying and full- of- crap thing a writer says is, I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it. A writer without a reader doesn't exist.
Typography is a hidden tool of manipulation within society.
My philosophy is that I'm an artist. I perform an art not with a paint brush or a camera. I perform with bodily movement. Instead of exhibiting my art in a museum or a book or on canvas, I exhibit my art in front of the multitudes.
I am an artist at living - my work of art is my life.
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