Were you scared? . . .

"Gil: Were you scared?"

Hemingway: Of what?

Gil: Of getting killed.

Hemingway: You'll never write well if you fear dying. (pause) Do you?

Gil: Yeah, I do. I'd say it's probably, well, maybe my greatest fear actually.

Hemingway: Well, it's something that all men before you have done; something all men will do.

Gil: I know, I know . . .

Hemingway: Have you ever made love to a truly great woman?

Gil: Actually, my fiancée is pretty sexy.

Hemingway: And when you make love to her you feel true and beautiful passion and you, for at least that moment, lose your fear of death?

Gil: No. That doesn't happen.

Hemingway: I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.”

. . . Midnight in Paris (2011) . . . Written and Directed by Woody Allen . . .