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
“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
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
Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man. — 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
It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man. — 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
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
“It may be that in his rogues the writer gratifies instincts deep-rooted in him, which the manners and customs of a civilised… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep to be able to tell you what mutton tastes like.… — W. Somerset Maugham Copy Share Image
“The disadvantages and dangers of the author’s calling are offset by an advantage so great as to make all its difficulties, disappointments,… — 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
Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some… — 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