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Writing Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
- We do not write as we want, but as we can.
- No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichés that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters,…
- The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.
- Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and…
- A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.
- An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has…
- No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes…
- There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type…
- Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man.
- It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.
- A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.
- Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experience he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a…
- What I'm trying to tell you is that there are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that…
- The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.
- Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.
- Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
- There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
- Tolerance is another word for indifference.
- The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
- Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
- Writing is the supreme solace.
- It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
- The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
- We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
- To write simply is as difficult as to be good.
More Ways to Read Writing Quotes by W. Somerset Maugham
More Writing Quotes
- Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. — Hannah Arendt
- Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing. — Paul Auster
- I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was… — Paul Auster
- I write the paragraph, then I'm crossing out, changing words, trying to improve it. When it seems more or less OK, then… — Paul Auster
- When we were making the law, when we were writing the literature and the mathematics the grandfarthers of Blair and little Bush… — Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
- A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. — Richard Bach
- In every song I write, whether it's a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing… — Billie Joe Armstrong
- I grew up in a working-class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know. — Andrea Arnold
- Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. — Sholem Asch
- Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core… — Isaac Asimov
- If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster. — Isaac Asimov
- Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. — Isaac Asimov