Getting the Words Right
Papa knew how to be concise.
Interviewer: How much rewriting do you do?
Hemingway: It depends. I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.
Interviewer: Was there some technical problem there? What was it that had stumped you?
Hemingway: Getting the words right.
(Ernest Hemingway, “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review Interview, 1956)
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Wonderful!
He was always so succinct!
Yes he was, and I just learnt a new word, succinct
.
Nice!