A friend in need is a friend too much

Here is a short text of Arnon Grunberg in the Volkskrant (The peoples paper, sounds quite commie doesn't ?)

"A friend in need is a friend too much"
I heard this (or my disformed memory thinks so) at English classes from Mr. Berndsen (google tells me that his first name is Niko, who would expect a name like that, wonderful !). We had a book called: "A friend in need", Mr. Berndsen told us the joke that Ernest Hemingway transformed this into the forementioned quote. Alas, google doesn't confirm this at all, but f**k it.

By the way: Happy New Year !
It comes with an extra day, enjoy !