The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties. — 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
The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man. — 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
I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp. — 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
“She was one of those writers, far from rare in the world of letters, who suppose that push and pull are an… — 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
There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
What I'm trying to tell you is that there are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some… — 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
“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
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
All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
A writer need not devour a whole sheep in order to know what mutton tastes like, but he must at least eat… — 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
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
As we grow older we become more conscious of the complexity, incoherence, and unreasonableness of human beings; this indeed is the only… — 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
As we grow older we become more conscious of the complexity, incoherence, and unreasonableness of human beings; this indeed is the only… — 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
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
It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man. — 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
“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
There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This… — 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
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“I used to think that one day I should write a really great novel, but I've long ceased even to hope for… — 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
