W. Somerset Maugham Quotes About Writing
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It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.
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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.
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We do not write as we want, but as we can.
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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.
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People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.
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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.
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A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.
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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.
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A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.
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We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
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Writing is the supreme solace.
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I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.
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Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
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The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.
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It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.
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Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man.
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The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.
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The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
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It is well to remember that grammar is common speech formulated.
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If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.
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The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
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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.
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The best style is the style you don't notice.
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To write simply is as difficult as to be good.
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Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.
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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.
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