“A bullfighter can never see the work of art that he is making. He has no chance to correct it as a painter or writer has. He cannot hear it as a musician can. He can only feel it and hear the crowd's reaction to it. When he feels it and knows that it is great it takes hold of him so that nothing else in the world matters. All the time that he is making his work of art he knows that he must keep within the limits of his skill and his knowledge of the animal. Those matadors are called cold who visibly show that they are thinking of this. Antonio was not cold and the public belonged to him now. He looked up at them and let them know, modestly but not humbly, that he knew it and as he circled the ring with the ear in his hand he looked at the different segments of Bilbao, a city that he loved, as they stood up as he passed and was happy that he owned them.”
More from Ernest Hemingway
“If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it.”
“You do things to my head. You do. I suppose that is quite clear.”
“I do not need to get used to your silence. I already know it. I quite possibly love all of…”
“'My heart's broken', he thought. 'If I feel this way my heart must be broken.'”