W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham CHwas a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth25 January 1874
knows rules three writers-and-writing
There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
pain writing journey
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.
writing young-writers trouble
The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.
beautiful writing want
We do not write as we want, but as we can.
writing men should
It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.
writing ideas brain
The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.
writing judging concerned
The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.
jobs writing feels
Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.
writing
A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.
strong writing sacrifice
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 they can't help themselves, they've got to do it. They're prepared to sacrifice everything to satisfy their yearning.
book writing character
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.
writing men greatness
Because a man can write great works he is none the less a man.
character writing giving
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.
writing cutting play
The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.