Why Writers Are the Loneliest Artists
There are no teammates, no live audience, no applause at the end. The magic often happens in a quiet room where you're able to translate your thoughts onto a blank canvas.
Ernest Hemingway revolutionized a modern style of writing, and he published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. In 1929, Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms, spent weeks at the top of best-seller lists. At just 30 years old, he was the most famous writer in the United States.
“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.”
His remarks are impeccable. He simultaneously insults the people who gave him the prize while alluding to the idea that he doesn't need recognition or admiration from his peers in order to be a great writer. He ends it with: "I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it."
