W. Somerset Maugham

"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."

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

"What do we any of us have but our illusions? And what do we ask of others but that we be allowed to keep them?"

"We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to."

"Impropriety is the soul of wit."

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

"You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches tolerance."

"The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill."

"The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes."

"When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character."

"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species."

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

"The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love."

"The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you."

"The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind."

"Only a mediocre person is always at his best."

"I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation."