What Writers Say, Part 11: Ernest Hemingway on the Work Destroyers

It's often said that artists are selfish. The nature of their work demands that they spend long stretches of time isolated from others. When Ernest Hemingway was asked which places are most advantageous to his writing, he responded that he could work in most any quiet place and concluded, "The telephone and visitors are the work destroyers." When asked about the optimal emotional time to write, he curtly answered, "You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you."

Sounds selfish, right?

But truth be told, the writers I have met are not much different from everyone else I know. Some are generous and some greedy, graceful and some crude, some mature and some puerile, some sensitive and some cold, some grounded and some neurotic, some energetic and some lethargic, some ambitious and some lazy, some sensible and some superficial, some happy and some depressed, some talkative and some quiet. This observation tells me that what distinguishes writing from other professions is that it is performed in places of intimacy, where non-writers might consider writers antisocial or selfish because writers perform their work where and when others are at their leisure.

Lesson learned? When writing, keep people and telephones out. If Hemingway were alive today, he would add smartphones to his list.