Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
ATTRIBUTION:
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), U.S. author. quoted in Papa Hemingway, pt. 1, ch. 4, A.E. Hotchner (1966).
Hemingway’s comment was made after being informed (by Hotchner) that William Faulkner considered Hemingway “had no courage” and “had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary.” Hemingway also described Faulkner as “Old Corndrinking Mellifluous.” (Quoted in Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway, A Life Story, 1969, rev. 1973).
