It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. He was always so entirely there.
Interpretation
Gore Vidal expresses the profound influence that Somerset Maugham had on writers of his time.
In this quote, Gore Vidal reflects on the significant impact of Somerset Maugham's writing on his generation. He acknowledges the challenge of remaining indifferent to Maugham's work, emphasizing how Maugham's presence and authenticity in his writing has left an indelible mark on those who write after him. This suggests a deep respect for Maugham's craft and highlights the interconnectedness of literary influences across generations.
In practice
In a speech about literary influences, one could reference this quote to highlight the significance of past writers.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
I defy anyone to finish Halldor Laxness's 'Independent People' without wetting the pages with tears.
You could tell 'The Handmaid's Tale' from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.
No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine... But from fifteen to seventeen she was in training for a heroine.
Great literature cannot grow from a neglected or impoverished soil. Only if we actually tend or care will it transpire that every hundred years or so we might get a Middlemarch.
A man of letters, merely by reading a phrase, can estimate exactly the literary merit of its author.
It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.
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