The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

by Ernest Hemingway

He had destroyed his talent himself. Why should he blame this woman because she kept him well? He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook. What was this? A catalogue of old books? What was his talent anyway? It was a talent all right but instead of using it, he had traded on it. It was never what he had done, but always what he could do. And he had chosen to make his living with something else instead of a pen or a pencil.

Dear god this hits hard… Where is my pen?

You wouldn’t want to destroy me again, would you?” “I’d like to destroy you a few times in bed,” he said. “Yes. That’s the good destruction. That’s the way we’re made to be destroyed.

I hope one day to make a female character sound this strong and sexy.

That and the fact that cats know how to look after themselves was all the good luck that old man would ever have.

This old man is my favorite Hemingway character right now. Super great and super short story.