The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
There is nothing so terrible as the pursuit of art by those who have no talent. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Art for art's sake makes no more sense than gin for gin's sake. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
It is not for nothing that artists have called their works the children of their brains and likened the pains of production… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Oh, my dear fellow, if you want to be a gentleman you must give up being an artist. They’ve got nothing to… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Perhaps it would have been possible to see in him a new Prometheus...the hero who for the good of mankind exposes himself… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“He had violent passions, and on occasion desire seized his body so that he was driven to an orgy of lust, but… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“It is a grotesque misapprehension which sees in art no more than a craft comprehensible perfectly only to the craftsman: art is… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The artist can within limits make what he likes of his life... It is only the artist, and maybe the criminal, who… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Art is triumphant when it can use convention as an instrument of its own purpose. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“It gives him spiritual freedom. To him life is a tragedy and by his gift of creation he enjoys the catharsis a… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“The Work of Art. When I watch the audience at a concert or the crowd in the picture gallery I ask myself… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Art, unless it leads to right action, is no more than the opium of an intelligentsia. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persists. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“A man thinks it quite natural that he should fall out of love with a woman, but it never strikes him for a moment… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“A man's work reveals him. In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the world to accept, but in his book… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“There is no more merit in having read a thousand books than in having ploughed a thousand fields.” — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I wanted to live again and again. I was willing to accept every sort of life, no matter what its pain and sorrow; I… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“His love became a prison from which he longed to escape, but he had not the strength merely to open the door-that was all… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
I did not believe him capable of love. That is an emotion in which tenderness is an essential part, but Strickland had no tenderness… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
