Ernest Hemingway? Natalie Goldberg? Conrad Aiken? Joan Crawford? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: I have repeatedly encountered the following advice directed toward aspiring writers:
Write hard and clear about what hurts.
This statement has been attributed to Ernest Hemingway, but I am skeptical because I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Ernest Hemingway who died in 1961 crafted this statement.
The earliest strong match known to QI appeared in the 1990 book “Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life” by Natalie Goldberg. A chapter discussing “The Rules of Writing Practice” contained the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Go for the jugular. If something scary comes up, go for it. That’s where the energy is. Otherwise, you’ll spend all your time writing around whatever makes you nervous. It will probably be abstract, bland writing because you’re avoiding the truth.
Hemingway said, “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” Don’t avoid it. It has all the energy. Don’t worry, no one ever died of it. You might cry or laugh, but not die.
QI does not know why Natalie Goldberg attributed the quotation to Hemingway. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The notion that “hard and clear” writing was desirable has a long history. A 1915 book review by U.S. writer Conrad Aiken published in “The Poetry Journal” described the ideals of the imagist poets:2
These ideals are roughly: the use of the language of common speech; the exact word; new rhythms, as the expression of new moods; freedom in the choice of subjects; … verse hard and clear, never blurred or indefinite …
In 1934 Hemingway penned a letter to fellow writer F. Scott Fitzgerald which contained heartfelt advice about using pain to heighten the quality of prose. Hemingway’s remarks were thematically related to the quotation under examination. He employed an informal agrammatical style:3
Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.
Hemingway also wrote the following in the same letter to Fitzgerald:
Scott for gods sake write and write truly no matter who or what it hurts but do not make these silly compromises.
F. Scott Fitzgerald also received writing advice from the famous actress Joan Crawford according to the 1958 memoir “The Education of a Woman” by gossip columnist Sheilah Graham who was Fitzgerald’s lover. Graham shared the following anecdote:4
The studio had talked to him about writing a new Joan Crawford picture. He told me about it gleefully. “Their first title was ‘Infidelity’; now they’ve changed it to ‘Fidelity’.” This amused him. He had been amused, too, by his first meeting with Miss Crawford.
Quite humbly he had told her, “I’m going to write your next picture.” She had smiled at him. “Good,” she had said, fixing him with her burning eyes. “Write hard, Mr. Fitzgerald, write hard!” Scott, telling it, threw back his head and laughed.
In 1966 “The Washington Post” printed an essay by book critic Raymond Rosenthal who referred to pain in literary production:5
It could be said that the great masters of modern literature wrote about what hurt them; writers like Mailer write about what hurts other people, or, rather, what will get a rise out of them.
In 1990 Natalie Goldberg ascribed the quotation under examination to Hemingway as mentioned at the beginning of this article:6
If something scary comes up, go for it. That’s where the energy is. Otherwise, you’ll spend all your time writing around whatever makes you nervous. It will probably be abstract, bland writing because you’re avoiding the truth. Hemingway said, “Write hard and clear about what hurts.”
In 1999 “Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose” by Constance Hale attributed the quotation to Hemingway:7
When it comes to developing these narrative skills, though, no book can help you. Experience is the ultimate master.
Ernest Hemingway once advised prose artists to “Write hard and clear about what hurts.” It’s good advice. But to follow it, you must stop reading.
In 2021 “Writing the Novella” by Sharon Oard Warner attributed the quotation to Hemingway:8
Hemingway’s advice was to “write hard and clear about what hurts.” And what hurts most are those things we don’t understand and can’t control.
In conclusion, there is no substantive evidence that Ernest Hemingway crafted this piece of advice. The earliest known match appeared within a 1990 book by Natalie Goldberg who credited Hemingway without a supporting citation. In a 1934 letter Hemingway did suggest that an author who had been hurt could use that experience while writing.
Image Notes: Painting of “Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid” by Johannes Vermeer circa 1670. Image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Michele Bruns, Maria Alexander, Mille Stelle, and Mardy Grothe whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Quotation expert Grothe operates the fascinating website Great Opening Lines.
- 1990, Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life by Natalie Goldberg, Chapter 1: The Rules of Writing Practice, Quote Page 4, Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1915 July, The Poetry Journal, Volume 3, Number 6, Reviews: Imagism or Myopia by Conrad Aiken (Book review of “Some Imagist Poets: An Anthology”), Start Page 233, Quote Page 233, The Four Seas Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1981, Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961, Edited by Carlos Baker, Letter To: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Letter Date: May 28, 1934, Start Page 407, Quote Page 407 and 408, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1958, Beloved Infidel: The Education of a Woman by Sheilah Graham and Gerold Frank, (First Edition), Chapter 19, Quote Page 214, Henry Holt and Company, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 1966 September 4, The Washington Post, Section: Book Week, Mailer’s Mafia by Raymond Rosenthal, Start Page 1, Quote Page 14, Column 5, Washington D.C. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1990, Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life by Natalie Goldberg, Chapter 1: The Rules of Writing Practice, Quote Page 4, Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1999, Sin and Syntax: How To Craft Wickedly Effective Prose by Constance Hale (Editor of Wired Style), Section: Epilogue, Quote Page 256, Broadway Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2021, Writing the Novella by Sharon Oard Warner, Chapter 4: Who’s Your Protagonist? What’s the Situation? Quote Page 50, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Verified with scans) ↩︎