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W. Somerset Maugham Quotes about Writing

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

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

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Real Talk, Story Writers

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.

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

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

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”

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”

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”

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”

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

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Speech, Common
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Style, Creative Writing

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

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

W. Somerset Maugham
Morning, Inspiration, Writing

Writing is the supreme solace.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Solace, Supreme

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

A good rule for writers: do not explain overmuch.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing

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

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Gentleman, Comeback
W. Somerset Maugham (1930). “Cakes and Ale”

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

To write simply is as difficult as to be good.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Crafts, Difficult

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".

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

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

The secret of play-writing can be given in two maxims: stick to the point, and, whenever you can, cut.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Cutting, Play
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

The trouble with young writers is that they are all in their sixties.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Young Writers, Trouble

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Judging, Concerned
W. Somerset Maugham (2014). “The Great Novels and Short Stories of Somerset Maugham: One of the Finest Writers of Short Stories Who Ever Lived”, p.328, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

It has been said that good prose should resemble the conversation of a well-bred man.

W. Somerset Maugham
Writing, Men, Should
W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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