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.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A character in literature is inspired by real-life models, but creativity allows for unique development beyond those models.
This quote by W. Somerset Maugham highlights the creative process of character development in writing, emphasizing that while authors base their characters on real-life inspirations, their imagination plays a crucial role in transforming these initial models into complex and original personas. The interplay between inspiration and creativity is fundamental to the craft of storytelling, allowing writers to fill their characters with unique traits and depths that can transcend their real-life counterparts.
Themes
CharacterImaginationCreativityWritingLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, when discussing character development, this quote can illustrate the importance of inspiration and imagination.
More from W. Somerset Maugham
All quotes →Cronshaw stopped for a moment to drink. He had pondered for twenty years the problem whether he loved liquor because it made him talk or whether he loved conversation because it made him thirsty.
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Are you sure you can prevent yourself from falling in love one of these days? Such things do happen, you know, even to the most prudent men.' Simon gave him a strange, one might even have thought a hostile, look. I should tear it out of my heart as I'd wrench out of my mouth a rotten tooth.
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I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.
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The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
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