The mathematician who after seeing Phedre asked: 'Qu'est que ca prouve?' was not such a fool as he has been generally made out. No one has ever been able to explain why the Doric temple of Paestum is more beautiful than a glass of cold beer except by bringing in considerations that have nothing to do with beauty.
W. Somerset MaughamEvery production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.
W. Somerset MaughamThe prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.
W. Somerset MaughamThe ballet. I saw in the fugitive beauty of a dancer's gesture a symbol of life. It was achieved at the cost of unending effort but, with all the forces of gravity against it, a fleeting poise in mid-air, a lovely attitude worthy to be made immortal in a bas-relief, it was lost as soon as it was gained and there remained no more than the memory of an exquisite emotion. So life, lived variously and largely, becomes a work of art only when brought to its beautiful conclusion and is reduced to nothingness in the moment when it arrives at perfection.
W. Somerset MaughamBy the time an actor knows how to act any sort of part he is often too old to act any but a few.
W. Somerset Maugham