Did Hemingway Say It?
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
This quotation is most often attributed to Mark Twain, though a growing number of quotation aficionados have attempted to put it under Ernest Hemingway's pen.
On a visit to San Francisco in July of 1937, Hemingway told reporters: "Say, this is great! After frying in New York, stewing down in Florida and sweltering in Los Angeles this is something like summer weather. I can't for the life of me see why anybody would ever move out of San Francisco, particularly in the summer time."
This is the closest Hemingway ever came to saying that "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
Posted on January 03, 2010 | Three comments
Most likely said before Hemingway's time, this is usually attributed to Mark Twain, but I have seen that attribution questioned. Its hyperbole (I have to say, our "summers" are pretty cold) is characteristic of Twain.
Did Hemingway say this? "We are stronger in the places we are broken?
The "strong at the broken places" quotation is from chapter 34, page 226 of A Farewell to Arms (1929). Page numbers are based on the hardcover edition and will vary by edition.
