It gives him spiritual freedom. To him life is a tragedy and by his gift of creation he enjoys the catharsis a purging of pity and terror, Which Aristotle tells is the object of art. Everything is transformed by his power into material and by writing it he can overcome it. Everything is grist to his mill.... The artist is the only free man. W. Somerset Maugham
About This Quote

When writers are finally free, they are free. They are free to explore the world outside of themselves. They are free, in some way, to take on the anxieties and anxieties of others, to imagine what it would be like to be someone else or perhaps to have lived in another time.

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More Quotes By W. Somerset Maugham
  1. The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.
  2. How can I be reasonable? To me our love was everything and you were my whole life. It is not very pleasant to realize that to you it was only an episode.
  3. As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.
  4. He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.
  5. If a man hasn't what's necessary to make a woman love him, it's his fault, not hers.
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