Hemingway on writing; “as a writer you should not judge. You should understand”

No one could say Hemingway lived a half-life. He enlisted as a World War 1 ambulance driver, was a foreign correspondent covering the Spanish Civil War, was present at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris, kept six-toed cats at his house in Key West, married 4 times and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954. His back catalogue includes A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls as well as a trove of advice to writers (er, don’t drink as much?). I particularly love the advice he gave in his acceptance speech:

“For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.”

We can all hope.

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