There are so many good quotes from The Office, but I think my favorite as a writer has to be this one:

It’s just the perfect mentality to have when going into a story. Whenever I read Hemingway, this image constantly flashes through my mind at every spartan paragraph, every long stretch of uninterrupted dialogue. He has such confidence in his characters and the power of their individual voices that he doesn’t feel the need to couch every piece of dialogue, or put said after most of them just to make it all clear. This style of his is most obvious in one of his more beloved short stories, ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.’ If you have read it, you may remember the famous stretch of pure dialogue that goes for 24 lines without a single tag. With nothing but dialogue, he’s able to characterize the two waiters who are talking, the atmosphere of the cafe, and even the last drunk in the place, who doesn’t say anything at all, besides when he asks for more brandy. You learn so much about the little world inside the cafe, populated by these three men that know each other so well, you almost don’t even realize it. Like watching a scene in a movie, your brain takes in more than you can consciously process, turning a series of words on the page into something that feels alive.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley