W. Somerset Maugham Quotes About Writing

Quotes about: Writing

• Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Powerful, Writing, Creativity

  "The Summing Up" by W. Somerset Maugham, Doubleday, Doran & Co., (p. 164), 1938.

• There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Real Talk, Story Writers

• 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 nothing else in the world to do.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Lying, Book, Writing

• 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

  Writing, Character, Passion

• We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Want

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Effort, Style

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• To write simply is as difficult as to be good.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Crafts, Difficult

• All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary-it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Matter, Story Writers

• The best style is the style you don't notice.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Style, Creative Writing

• I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Morning, Inspiration, Writing

• 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 that most often writes about himself.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Men, Guilt

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• You cannot write well or much (and I venture the opinion that you cannot write well unless you write much) unless you form a habit.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing

  "The Summing Up".

• 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 good to listen to.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Sound, Looks

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Beautiful, Art, Book

• Writing is the supreme solace.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Solace, Supreme

• The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Funny, Book, Reading

• It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Gentleman, Comeback

  W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

• Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Broken, Habit

  W. Somerset Maugham (2010). “The Summing Up”, p.179, Random House

• It is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Speech, Common

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

• We do not write as we want, but as we can.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

  W. Somerset Maugham (1941). “the Gentleman in the Parlour”

• 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 to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Character, Giving

• A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing

• 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 few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Pain, Writing, Journey

  W. Somerset Maugham (2012). “The Moon and Sixpence”, p.6, Courier Corporation

• There are men who are possessed by an urge so strong to do some particular thing that they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Strong, Writing, Sacrifice

  "The Razor's Edge". Book by W. Somerset Maugham, 1944.

• 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 well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. ... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Writing, Heart, Character

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