What has influenced my life more than any other single thing has been my stammer. Had I not stammered I would probably... have gone to Cambridge as my brothers did, perhaps have become a don and every now and then published a dreary book about French literature.
W. Somerset Maugham
Related I don't feel when I'm writing that I'm drawing from any other writer, but of course I mu... CHARLES MCCARRY In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a ... TERRY PRATCHETT I was hugely formed by stories I was told as a child whether that was in a book, the cinema, theatre... DAVID TENNANT If I had to do my life over, I would change every single thing I have done. RAY DAVIES I would have to say the novel 'War and Peace' influenced me more than any other book. This g... DOUGLAS PRESTON I've stammered all my life, and it's fair to say that my stammer has shaped my life. It'... GARETH GATES Leon has influenced more lives, I think, than probably any single elected official in this region. WILLIAM JONES Reading has been the fuel of my motivation: it has changed the direction in which I have traveled, a... ZIG ZIGLAR ...Okay... probably now you have read all my books up to now..., you have check out everything what ... DEYTH BANGER We are not quitters. Britain has always gone out there; we have probably been more influential than ... GEORGE OSBORNE I'm ready to become a French person amongst French people, and more than ever I have the love fo... NICOLAS SARKOZY 'Step Brothers' itself, when I did it, I don't know if I had any idea that it would beco... ADAM SCOTT Just because you haven't got a home, doesn't make you homeless. and Just because you don't... ANTHONY T. HINCKS My heart has been stolen too - but I've gone and got it back every single time! SALMA HAYEK I find it hard now to think about the future because I still do not fully understand the consequence... CARRIE CUNNINGHAM My life has been a continuous fulfillment of dreams. It appears that everything I saw and did has a ... LIBERTY HYDE BAILEY I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time ... DIANE SETTERFIELD My life had got on the wrong track, and my contact with men had become now a mere soliloquy. I had f... NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS But that doesn't mean to say, of course, there aren't occasions now and then - extremely desolate oc... KAZUO ISHIGURO It has been my misfortune to be engaged in more battles than any other general on the other side of ... ULYSSES S. GRANT All through my life, I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my str... MUHAMMAD ALI Others are writing my biography, and let it rest as they elect to make it. I have lived my life, wel... CLARA BARTON To be an outlaw you must first have a base in law to reject and get out of, I never had such a base.... WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS I think to have done 'Titanic' would have been a tortuous experience altogether. I feel good... FAY WRAY Literature has always been a part of my life. I studied history and literature in college. My mother... ELLIOT ACKERMAN I'm not superstitious about good luck charms and all that. I don't have any ring or any tang... SHREYA GHOSHAL I have asked a lot of my emotions --one hundred and twenty stories. The price was high, right up wit... SOURCE UNKNOWN Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. JOHN DRYDEN The truth is my love life has been a lot more turbulent than I have let on. GEORGE MICHAEL I believe that every role that I have done this far has had quality and content. My roles have been ... NATASHA HENSTRIDGE My heart has been stolen too - but I've gone and got it back every single time! SALMA HAYEK I had a body wax. It's the most painful thing I have ever done in my life. I had every single ha... ANDY SERKIS I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my... BRITTANY RENéE I would much rather have regrets about not doing what people said, than regretting not doing what my... BRITTANY RENéE From my earliest days, reading was my passion, and at Cambridge, where I studied English literature,... MIRIAM MARGOLYES My life has always been compartmentalized into different aspects. I have my speed skating Olympic pu... APOLO OHNO I had a stammer through adolescence. Any fun I'd had performing in school plays disappeared and ... CHARLES DANCE Many people have asked me, 'How do you make a single life a happy one? My answer is, 'Create the bes... KRISTEN MCMAIN OAKS This has probably been the most fun baseball total experience as I have had in my life, ... I've nev... HUSTON STREET I've been more single than not in my short life. MICHAEL KIWANUKA Every now and then, someone will tell me that one of my books has made them laugh out loud. I never ... MARY ROACH My body has gone into things and done things that I never would have imagined ever in life. LISA RINNA All my life I've had the privilege to make my living with my imagination, and the most important... TOMMY LEE JONES Other than that and the fact that I don't have to work any more my life hasn't changed a bit, CHRIS MONEYMAKER What would I have done if I'd been put to the test? Would I have risked my own life for people I... LIONEL BLUE I don't have a creepy uncle, but I certainly have many, many uncles. My mom has twelve brothers ... MARTHA MACISAAC Had I been a great athlete, I'm not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned... LOU HOLTZ Hats have been my thing pretty much my whole life but finance has not. I would go to the corner stor... NE-YO The funniest thing is not who influenced me positively, but who influenced me negatively. I had such... STANLEY DONEN James Dean has never been one of my guys. I don't want to be him. I will take boring anytime. I ... JAMES MARSDEN Every single thing I've done has made me who I am today. The only thing I would take back is hur... SCOTT WEILAND You can be someone's friend and have sex with them. The trick is you have to want their emotional an... LAURELL K. HAMILTON I would say my biggest mentor has been my father because he always has been. Actually both of my par... NICOLE RICHIE Every single thing I learned about marketing and building my business, I learned from my mom, and sh... BARBARA CORCORAN As an American I wish my Dad had been elected. Personally I think my life is easier than it would ha... ELEANOR MONDALE I have been a foreigner all my life, first as a daughter of diplomats, then as a political refugee a... ISABEL ALLENDE I never sold any of my pieces. I had all the money I wanted. Then I would have lost my sculptures an... IRVING HARPER I've had my nose in a book my whole life. I never thought it would be useful, but it is now. Wha... TWINKLE KHANNA I don't think I would have written a combat novel if I had just had peacetime military training.... JOE HALDEMAN I would not do anything to besmirch my reputation any further than it has already been. RANDY QUAID My heart broke all over again. I wanted my life back, my mama, but I knew I would never have that. T... DOROTHY ALLISON I don't see that my age has anything to do with what is between the covers of my book, any more ... ELEANOR CATTON I’ve had to work hard for a lot of things in my life. I remember being told I probably wouldn’t ... TOM HIDDLESTON I don't know if I would be getting as many chances with any other coach in the league. Ellinger has ... JAMIE WATSON Everything has gone beyond my expectations. I've had a great summer, and the fans have been tremendo... JENNIE FINCH Before, I was the baby of the team and now, even though I'm not the oldest, I have more experience t... ANGELA RUGGIERO Money has never been my drive. I have never seen the shortage of money in my life, so for me, I don&... RANBIR KAPOOR I suppose my life has always been about pleasing people, making sure they're all right, doing th... EMILIA FOX Anything I wanted to do and achieve has not been influential in my life, but my failures have. IMTIAZ ALI Yes, but it's my life has been wasted, And I have been the fool, To let this manufacturer use my bod... JAMES TAYLOR I have my three brothers, and then I have my adopted sister from El Salvador, who is actually the ol... CARRIE COON When it comes to boys and her weight, I think Ellenor is much more conservative than I am, and she h... CAMRYN MANHEIM I did not expect to encounter what has beset me since my elevation to the presidency. God knows, I h... ZACHARY TAYLOR When 'Catch Me If You Can' was published back in 1980, I never dreamed that it would become ... FRANK ABAGNALE Even if I hadn't been cast as Doctor Who, my acting would probably have been influenced by Willi... PETER CAPALDI I don't pretend to be any smarter than Average Joe. To be honest, I'm not even sure what I'm saying ... ERIK HEIMANN I don't think a professional agent or theatre manager would say my career had gone as well as pe... RON MOODY I have had friends who I decided were not good friends, were people who brought more trouble than ha... DAVE EGGERS I have seen many phases of life; I have moved in imperial circles, I have been a Minister of State; ... JEAN-BAPTISTE DUMAS Oddly enough, MS has made my life so much better than it was before. I now appreciate what I have an... TERI GARR I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986. TASLIMA NASRIN Coach Stein has always been genuine and honest with me and my mom and dad. There's probably not anot... CARLYNN SAVANT All my adult life I have kept a distance from other people, it has been my way of coping, because I ... KARL OVE KNAUSGåRD I don't think anybody in my graduating class would have figured that I would be doing full-on si... BROOKE NEVIN I come to work every day thinking I have to earn my job, and I really believe that. I don't have... ADENA FRIEDMAN Poul Anderson's 'The High Crusade' may have had a greater impact on my development as a ... ERIC FLINT I wonder what my life would have been if I had not spent it abused by men. CRISTABEL MICHAELS Let them be gone now, them and all the others, those I have used and those I have not used, give me ... SAMUEL BECKETT In my life I had no other choice than to become a strong person. DONATELLA VERSACE Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my f... JANE AUSTEN I would love mainland Chinese to read my book. There is a Chinese translation which I worked on myse... JUNG CHANG There has never been a moment when faith hasn't been an important part of my life. There have be... MARCO RUBIO Every year of my working life, I have been fortunate enough to earn more money than I have spent. GILES ANDREAE If I had been at a University I don't think I would have been able to have the experience I had ... BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON I probably spent the first 20 years of my life wanting to be as American as possible. Through my 20s... MAYA LIN Without the illness I would never have been forced to re-evaluate my life and my career. I know if I... LANCE ARMSTRONG Everyone in my family pretty much has gone here so it seemed like the only option. I think (Lott) al... JENNIFER HOWARD My whole life is a practical joke, ... Every evening and every show has really become about entertai... HOWIE MANDEL I have no hang-ups in life. I don't care about groups and camps. I have been brought up with cer... ABHISHEK BACHCHAN It has made me better loving you... it has made me wiser, and easier, and brighter. I used to want a... HENRY JAMES
More W. Somerset Maugham
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SOMERSET MAUGHAM Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Lady Hodmarsh and the duchess immediately assumed the clinging affability that persons of rank assum... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest p... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People who ask for your criticism want only praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You know what the critics are. If you tell the truth they only say you're cynical and it does an aut... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise. W. 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SOMERSET MAUGHAM For the memory of love is sweet, though the love itself were in vain. And what I have lost of pleasu... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection is what American women expect to find in their husbands... but English women only hope ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The end of culture is right living. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I knew that suffering did not enoble; it degraded. It made men selfish, petty and suspicious. It abs... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifice... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The average American can get into the kingdom of heaven much more easily than he can get into the Bo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you're eighteen your emotions are violent, but they're not durable. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You learn more quickly under the guidance of experienced teachers. You waste a lot of time going dow... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Often the best way to overcome desire is to satisfy it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's always difficult to make conversation with a drunk, and there's no denying it, the sober are at... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Tao. Some of us look for the Way in opium and some in God, some of us in whiskey and some in love. I... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one's soul. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The crown of literature is poetry. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering f... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM They were talking more distantly than if they were strangers who had just met, for if they had been ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM How can I be reasonable? To me our love was everything and you were my whole life. It is not very pl... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain su... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with i... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that havi... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Perhaps the most important use of money - It saves time. Life is so short, and there's so much to do... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are few things so pleasant as a picnic eaten in perfect comfort. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We who are of mature age seldom suspect how unmercifully and yet with what insight the very young ju... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called, but few are chosen. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is very difficult to know people and I don't think one can ever really know any but one's own cou... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I never spend more than one hour in a gallery. That is as long as one's power of appreciation persis... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I like manual labor. Whenever I've got waterlogged with study, I've taken a spell of it and found it... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies a... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM All important persons have about them someone in a subordinate position who has their ear. These dep... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM A man ought to work. That's what he's here for. That's how he contributes to the welfare of the comm... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM To write simply is as difficult as to be good. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get i... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I was young I had an elderly friend who used often to ask me to stay with him in the country. H... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Love is a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We have long passed the Victorian era, when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a ba... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You can't learn too soon that the most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You are not angry with people when you laugh at them. Humor teaches them tolerance. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large wi... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Sometimes people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed that in due course they actuall... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Tolerance is only another name for indifference. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives by make-believe. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and wo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When you have loved as she has loved, you grow old beautifully. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The complete life, the perfect pattern, includes old age as well as youth and maturity. The beauty o... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the ... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I was young I was amazed at Plutarch's statement that the elder Cato began at the age of eighty... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is er... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who has lost it. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Charm and nothing but charm at last grows a little tiresome. It's a relief then to deal with a man w... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life isn't long enough for love and art. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When things are at their worst I find something always happens. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, pe... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM There was an immeasurable distance between the quick and the dead: they did not seem to belong to th... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefo... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM The important thing was to love rather than to be loved. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Men seek but one thing in life - their pleasure. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Life wouldn't be worth living if I worried over the future as well as the present. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know the... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM You Europeans know nothing about America. Because we amass large fortunes you think we care for noth... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by butteri... W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM