Hemingway quotes from Midnight in Paris (2011)

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.

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.

Gil

Can I ask you the biggest favor in the world?

Hemingway

What is it?

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.