W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.

Talent warms-up the given (as they say in cookery) and makes it apparent; genius brings something new. But our time lets talent pass for genius. They want to abolish the genius, deify the genius, and let talent forge ahead.

Of the three prerequisites of genius; the first is soul; the second is soul; and the third is soul.

Genius gives birth, talent delivers. What Rembrandt or Van Gogh saw in the night can never be seen again. Born writers of the future are amazed already at what they're seeing now, what we'll all see in time for the first time, and then see imitated many times by made writers.

The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.

Genius is the error in the system.

A genius is a mentally ill person with an audience

The difference between Talent and Genius is that Talent says things which he has never heard but once, and Genius things which he has never heard.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.

Talent works, genius creates.

A man of genius has a right to any mode of expression.

The man who puts life into an idea is acclaimed a genius, because he does the right thing at the right time. Therein lies the difference between the genius and a commonplace man.

Genius is rarely able to give any account of its own processes.

One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?

Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.

Talent does whatever it wants to do. Genius does only what it can.

I just want to keep doing things completely different from the other. I just want to keep working with great people, great filmmakers and great actors and just building on that experience.

Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics.

To do a dull thing with style-now that's what I call art.

The principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.

Genius is never understood in its own time.

When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.