More from William Somerset Maugham

  1. There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
  2. We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
  3. The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
  4. When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.
  5. Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
  6. It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.
  7. In Hollywood, the women are all peaches. It makes one long for an apple occasionally.
  8. No gray hairs streak my soul, no grandfatherly fondness there! I shake the world with the might of my voice, and walk-handsome, twentytwoye…

All William Somerset Maugham quotes