Hemingway Interview Yawn

Funny thing is how many think everything Hemingway is cliche, or known. I just re-read the Paris Review interview and these made me think. All bold print are Hemingway’s words.

First I wrote “The Killers,” which I’d tried to write before and failed.

Everybody my age had written a novel and I was still having a difficult time writing a paragraph.

I rewrote the ending to Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.

A writer who can both write and teach should be able to do both. Many competent writers have proved it could be done.

The better the writers the less they will speak about what they have written themselves.

I’m always reading books—as many as there are.

I cannot believe Twain ever “tested out” Huckleberry Finn on listeners. If he did they probably had him cut out good things and put in the bad parts.

(And my favorite)

That is a long-term tiring question…

John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024) and Nomad Science (Spuyten Duyvil Press, forthcoming in 2026). His fiction is also published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, Hobart, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His poetry is also published in elimae, Sixth Finch, Contrapuntos, and elsewhere. His criticism is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, two-time New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, where he runs Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.

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