A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.
Interpretation
This quote distinguishes between the seriousness of a writer's intent and the somberness of their style.
Ernest Hemingway draws a line between being a serious writer, who can embody various styles and approaches, and a solemn writer, who is overly serious and lackluster. The metaphor suggests that seriousness in writing should not be equated with solemnity, as the latter can stifle creativity and expression.
In practice
This quote can be used in a writing workshop to encourage emerging writers to explore various styles.
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.
If literature has engaged me as a project, first as a reader, then as a writer, it is as an extension of my sympathies to other selves, other domains, other dreams, other territories.
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
I enjoy playing the band as the band. I 'be' the whole band and I'm playing the drums, I'm playing the guitar, I'm playing the saxophone. To me, the most wonderful thing about playing music is that.
You shall create beauty not to excite the senses but to give sustenance to the soul.
My writing is jagged and harsh, I want it to remain that way; I don't want it smoothed out.
The magician to some degree is trying to drive him or herself mad in a controlled setting, within controlled laws.
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