“There is no more merit in having read a thousand books than in having ploughed a thousand fields.” — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Well, you know when people are no good at anything else they become writers. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. — 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
To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I would sooner a writer were vulgar than mincing; for life is vulgar, and it is life he seeks.” — 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
A novelist must preserve a childlike belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I would sooner read the catalogue of the Army and Navy Stores or Bradshaw's Guide than nothing at all, and indeed I… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Is it rash to assume that when a practised writer says a thing, he is more likely to mean what he says… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from… — 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
The novel may stimulate you to think. It may satisfy your aesthetic sense. It may arouse your moral emotions. But if it… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
You cannot write well or much (and I venture the opinion that you cannot write well unless you write much) unless you… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy,… — 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
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
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
No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh,… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: When you are reconciled to the fact that… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“Why d’you read then?” “Partly for pleasure, because it’s a habit and I’m just as uncomfortable if I don’t read as if… — 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
“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
“There are three secrets to writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are.” — 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
Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it. — 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
