“There is no more merit in having read a thousand books than in having ploughed a thousand fields.” — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
It is astonishing how many books I find there is no need for me to read at all. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Some people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit,… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I don't see the use of reading the same thing over and over again,' said Phillip. 'That's only a laborious form of… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Most of these stories are on the tragic side. But the reader must not suppose that the incidents I have narrated were… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“There are three secrets to writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are.” — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
But the only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“He began to read at haphazard. He entered upon each system with a little thrill of excitement, expecting to find in each… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“A sensible person does not read a novel as a task. He reads it as a diversion. He is prepared to interest… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an author no… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I feel it right to warn the reader that he can very well skip this chapter without losing the thread of such… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Why do you read then?' Partly for pleasure, because it's a habit and I'm just as uncomfortable if I don't read as… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably...… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
But I am not sure it would contain any short stories. For the short story is a minor art, and it must… — 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
