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.
W. Somerset MaughamThe author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so.
W. Somerset MaughamSometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs.
W. Somerset Maugham