When I had finished the book I knew that no matter what Scott did, nor how he behaved, I must know it was like a sickness and be of any help I could to him and try to be a good friend. He had many good, good friends, more than anyone I knew. But I enlisted as one more, whether I could be of any use to him or not. If he could write a book as fine as The Great Gatsby I was sure that he could write an even better one. I did not know Zelda yet, and so I did not know the terrible odds that were against him. But we were to find them out soon enough.
Ernest HemingwayIโm trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life acrossโnot to just depict lifeโor criticize itโbut to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me you actually experience the thing. You canโt do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful. Because if it is all beautiful you canโt believe in it. Things arenโt that way.
Ernest Hemingway