Midnight in Paris 2011 quotes

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Greetings and salutations. You’ll forgive me, I’ve been mixing grain and grappa. Now this is a writer, Gil, yes?

Gil

Gil Pender.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gil Pender.

Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway.

Gil

Hemingway?

Hemingway

You like my book.

Gil

Liked? I loved, all your work.

Hemingway

Yes, it was a good book because it was an honest book, and that’s what war does to men. And there’s nothing fine and noble about dying in the mud unless you die gracefully, and then it’s not only noble but brave.

Did you read my story? What’d you think?

Hemingway

There was some fine writing in it, but it was unfulfilled.

I might have known you’d hate it.

The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence.

Gil

Can I ask you the biggest favor in the world?

Hemingway

What is it?

Gil

Hi, Mr. Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway

The assignment was to take the hill. There were four of us, five if you counted Vicente, but he had lost his hand when a grenade went off and couldn't fight as could when I first met him. And he was young and brave, and the hill was soggy from days of rain. And it sloped down toward a road and there were many German soldiers on the road. And the idea was to aim for the first group, and if our aim was true we could delay them.

Gil

Were you scared?

Ernest Hemingway

Of what?

Gil

Of getting killed.

Ernest Hemingway

You'll never write well if you fear dying. Do you?

Gil

Yeah, I do. I'd say probably, might be my greatest fear, actually.

Ernest Hemingway

It's something all men before you have done, all men will do.

Gil

I know, I know.

Ernest Hemingway

Have you ever made love to a truly great woman?

Gil

Actually, my fiancé is pretty sexy.

Ernest Hemingway

And when you make love to her you feel true and beautiful passion. And you for at least that moment lose your fear of death.

Gil

No, that doesn't happen.

Ernest Hemingway

I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face, like some rhino hunters I know, or Belmonte, who's truly brave. It is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds, until it returns as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.

Gil

This is unbelievable! Look at this! There's no city like this in the world. There never was.

You act like you've never been here before.

Gil

I don't get here often enough, that's the problem. Can you picture how drop dead gorgeous this city is in the rain? Imagine this town in the '20s. Paris in the '20s, in the rain. The artists and writers!

Why does every city have to be in the rain? What's wonderful about getting wet?

It’s always the maid.

Gil

Would you read it?

Hemingway

Your novel?

Gil

Yah, it’s like 400 pages long and I’m just looking for an opinion.

Hemingway

My opinion is that I hate it.

Gil

You haven’t even read it yet.

Hemingway

If it’s bad, I'll hate it because I hate bad writing. If it’s good I’ll be envious and I’ll hate it all the more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.

Hemingway

She’ll drive you crazy, this woman.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

She’s exciting and she has talent.

Hemingway

This month it’s writing, last month it was something else. You’re a writer, you need time to write, not all this fooling around. She’s wasting you because she’s really a competitor. Don’t you agree?

Gil

Me?

Hemingway

Speak up for chrissake. I am asking, do you think my friend is making a tragic mistake?

Gil

I actually don’t know the Fitzgeralds that well.

Hemingway

You’re a writer. You make observations. You were with them all night.

Can we not discuss my personal life in public?

Hemingway

She’s jealous of his gift and it’s a fine gift, it’s rare. You like his work? You can speak freely.

Hemingway

You writing?

Gil

A novel.

Hemingway

About what?

Gil

It’s about a um…a man who works in a nostalgia shop.

Hemingway

What the hell is a nostalgia shop?

Gil

Y’know, a place where they sell old things, memorabilia. And, does that sound terrible?

Hemingway

No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.

I know, I could be one of the great writers of musical lyrics, not that I can write melodies and I try. And then I hear the songs he writes and I realize I’ll never write a great lyric and my real talent lies in drinking.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sure does.