Hemingway on Style

Steven Pressfield has posted George Plimpton’s famous interview of Ernest Hemingway.
Something that Hemingway said really struck a chord with me:

INTERVIEWER

Could you say how much thought-out effort went into the evolvement of your distinctive style?

HEMINGWAY

That is a long-term tiring question and if you spent a couple of days answering it you would be so self-conscious that you could not write. I might say that what amateurs call a style is usually only the unavoidable awkwardnesses in first trying to make something that has not heretofore been made. Almost no new classics resemble other previous classics. At first people can see only the awkwardness. Then they are not so perceptible. When they show so very awkwardly people think these awkwardnesses are the style and many copy them. This is regrettable.

I was reminded of a quote.  I don't remember the source, but it was basically that a person's style is the sum of their deficiencies.

Style should be a choice, not an excuse for bad craft.

Go read the rest of the interview.