W. Somerset Maugham

“A little smoke lost in the air, that was the life of a man.”

“Why did you look at the sunset?' Philip answered with his mouth full: Because I was happy.”

“It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.”

“I've been quite happy. Look, here are my proofs. Remember that I am indifferent to discomforts which would harass other folk. What do the circumstances of life matter if your dreams make you...”

“Only a mediocre person is always at his best.”

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

“The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.”

“We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.”

“If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write.”

“Writing is the supreme solace.”

“To write simply is as difficult as to be good.”

“You cannot write unless you write much.”

“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”

“Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same Way and it leads nowhither.”

“I used to listen to the monks repeating the Lord's Prayer; I wondered how they could continue to pray without misgiving to their heavenly father to give them their daily bread. Do children b...”

“You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation...”

“No egoism is so insufferable as the Christian with regard to his soul.”

“Was it necessary to tell me that you wanted nothing in the world but me?' The corners of his mouth drooped peevishly. Oh, my dear, it's rather hard to take quite literally the things a man s...”

“Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not...”

“His habit of reading isolated him: it became such a need that after being in company for some time he grew tired and restless; he was vain of the wider knowledge he had acquired from the per...”