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W. Somerset Maugham on Writing

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“Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.”
#701
W. Somerset Maugham

More from W. Somerset Maugham

“It's very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.”
#702
W. Somerset Maugham
“We do not write as we want, but as we can.”
#703
W. Somerset Maugham
“No author can create a character out of nothing. He must have a model to give him a starting point; but then his imagination goes to work, he builds him up, adding a trait here, a trait there, which his model did not possess.”
#704
W. Somerset Maugham
“Writing is a wholetime job: no professional writer can afford only to write when he feels like it.”
#705
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.”
#706
W. Somerset Maugham
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Focus Saved In my younger and more vulnerable years years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. | The Great Gatsby Chapter I Words 106 Writing Time 00:18:20 / 00:30:00 Speed 342 words/hour
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgements, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. | The Great Gatsby 12:46:32 Chapter I 106 W 00:18:20