They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved; they do not understand that what interests you is the way in which you have created the illusion. Anthony Trollope ceased to be read for thirty years because he confessed that he wrote at regular hours and took care to get the best price he could for his work.

W. S. Maugham, The summing up (1938), 77-8

I still remember the rather absurd arguments that were held about the calling I should adopt

I still remember the rather absurd arguments that were held about the calling I should adopt. A suggestion was made that I should become a civil servant and my uncle wrote to an old Oxford friend of his who held an important position in the Home Office for his advice. It was that, owing to the system of examinations and the class of persons it had introduced into the government service, it was now no place for a gentleman. That settled that. It was finally decided that I should become a doctor.

W. S. Maugham, The summing up (1938), 59-60

Immortality for literary productions lasts in any case but a few hundred years

I think few serious writers, by which I do not only mean writers of serious things, can be entirely indifferent to the fate that will befall their works after their death. It is pleasant to think, not that one may achieve immortality (immortality for literary productions lasts in any case but a few hundred years and then is seldom more than the immortality of the schoolroom) but that one may be read with interest by a few generations and find a place, however small, in the history of one's country's literature. But so far as I am concerned, I look upon this modest possibility with scepticism.

W. S. Maugham, The summing up (1938), 11-12

When I met him again years later, he still knew every joke I'd used in my debut performance and recited them back to me.

 [Bob] Monkhouse was a student of comedy who taped every comedy radio show and videoed the debut set of every comic working in television. He knew everyone's act. When I met him again years later, he still knew every joke I'd used in my debut performance and recited them back to me.

L. Henry, Who am I, again? (2019), 107-8 

It turns out that the calmer this Hulk gets, the stronger she gets

It turns out that the calmer this Hulk [She Hulk] gets, the stronger she gets ... the story’s climax involves her whaling the bejeesus out of the Dark Avengers as she meditates: “I flow with the universe. I bend like the supple reed. I envelop my enemies.”

D. Wolk, All of the Marvels (2015), 251 and footnote

its only legible words of dialogue are the few that the dog understands

One issue is presented from the point of view of Hawkeye’s dog, Lucky: its only legible words of dialogue are the few that Lucky understands, its colour palette is limited (to the yellows and blues that dogs can see!) and its ‘narration’ takes the form of associative maps of little icon-like images (a trick lifted from Chris Ware’s comics).

D. Wolk, All of the Marvels (2021), 22. footnote

The Cedar Walk has been planned and planted by someone was never going to see it

The Cedar Walk has been planned and planted by someone was never going to see it - not him, nor his children, not even his children's children, though they would have had a clearer view of what it was going to be. What amazingly generous confidence in the future those eighteenth-century landscape designers had!

D. Athill, Alive, alive oh! (2015), 23-4