W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

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
• Words
• Matter
• Story Writers

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Quotes to Explore

• The more I go on in this career of making albums, writing songs and playing music, the more I think of each album as a movie. I really wanted to make a film, but making a film is much more expensive than making a record.

  

  J. D. Souther
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Movie

• I've got plenty of quirks. I go to an office early in the morning. Early in the morning is really good writing time. I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not a germaphobe: it's all about a fresh start.

  

  Aaron Sorkin
  • Time
  • Good
  • Writing

• Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.

  

  Abraham Lincoln
  • Me
  • Wonder
  • Matter

• The game of life is a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.

  

  Florence Scovel Shinn
  • Life
  • Game
  • Words

• I don't talk about Amy Winehouse as a 'singer.' She's a pioneer. I listened to her endlessly when I started writing.

  

  Laura Mvula
  • Writing
  • Talk
  • Singer

• It is convenient to distinguish the two kinds of experience which have thus been described, the experienc-ing and the experienc-ed, by technical words.

  

  Samuel Alexander
  • Experience
  • Words
  • Two

• I was going to try to get into the creative writing program at Berkeley; it's just that the acting thing worked out.

  

  Mahershala Ali
  • Writing
  • Acting
  • Creative

• I was always more interested in my books and my writing than going out. It's OK to say I'm a nerd. That's me.

  

  Samantha Shannon
  • Writing
  • Me
  • Books

• If I weren't a performer, I would be still be writing and songwriting. Plus, I also really want to get into producing.

  

  Manika
  • Writing
  • Want
  • Songwriting

• In high school, I was doing my magazine 'Rookie' and a lot of writing, and I became a little less interested in the fashion world. I was approached by an agent for writing, and I said I wanted to act as well. They sent me scripts, and then I got my first Broadway play, 'This Is Our Youth'.

  

  Tavi Gevinson
  • World
  • Writing
  • School

• I'm quite adept at writing two or sometimes even three stories at once. So if I get stuck on one story, I switch the next and let my subconscious work on unraveling any plot problems from another story.

  

  Zara Cox
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Problems

• I studied philosophy, religious studies, and English. My training was writing four full-length novels and hiring an editor to tear them apart. I had enough money to do that, and then rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.

  

  Ted Dekker
  • Writing
  • Money
  • Religious

• I love being a mom. But there's a certain kind of tedium to your life when your kid is young. Writing allows you to wander when your kid is napping in a crib ten feet away. So that's the great joy of writing fiction for me.

  

  Gayle Forman
  • Life
  • Kind
  • Mom

• Illegal immigration can never be completely stopped, no matter how high the wall or how many patrol agents you have watching it.

  

  Gail Collins
  • High
  • Never
  • Wall

• You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

  

  Abraham Lincoln
  • Growing
  • Matter
  • Grandfather

• It does not matter how you came into the world, what matters is that you are here.

  

  Oprah Winfrey
  • World
  • You
  • Matter

• It usually takes me 20 to 90 minutes to write a song because once I start, I don't stop. If I start writing a song, and you try to have a conversation with me, you're a bad person.

  

  Halsey
  • Writing
  • Bad
  • Song

• I start writing with only the vaguest idea about who my characters are and what is going to happen, and the characters and plot come into existence as I go. I've tried doing it the other way, but for me, outlining is a waste of time because I never follow the outline.

  

  Karen Robards
  • Time
  • Writing
  • Start

• The daily quota I've set for myself is 500 words or approximately a page and a half double-spaced. Which isn't much, except that I'm extremely slow, extremely meticulous. 'Le mot juste' haunts me. On a good day, I will finally secrete the 500th word at about 5 o'clock, and I'll reward myself by going to Housing Works Bookstore to read.

  

  Said Sayrafiezadeh
  • Good
  • Words
  • Day

• I'm still very much a believer in the spontaneity of certain kinds of writing. But then you have to eventually, when you're writing a long play, make adjustments along the way - all kinds of adjustments.

  

  Sam Shepard
  • Long
  • Writing
  • Play

• Meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words ' God can'.

  

  C. S. Lewis
  • God
  • Words
  • Two

• I might appear confident and chatty, but I spend most of my time laughing at jokes I don't find funny, saying things I don't really mean - because at the end of the day that's what we're all trying to do: fit in, one way or another, desperately trying to pretend we're all the same.

  

  Tabitha Suzuma
  • Time
  • Trying
  • Funny

• Pessimism is rife in Israel.

  

  Elliott Abrams

• 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
  • Words
  • Matter