W. Somerset Maugham on Writing

“Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.”

More from W. Somerset Maugham

“The ideas for stories that thronged my brain would not let me rest till I had got rid of them by writing them.”

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

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

“Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.”

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

Back to All Quotes