W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

William Somerset Maugham was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s. In spite of his popularity and international fame, Maugham did not receive critical attention for his fiction in Britain. Expressing his frustration with the situation Maugham wrote in his autobiography The Summing Up (1938), that he stood "in the very first row of the second-raters." Maugham's breakthrough novel was the semi-autobiographical Of Human Bondage (1915), which is usually considered his outstanding achievement.

Maugham's skill in handling plot has been compared with the manner of Guy de Maupassant. His stories are told in clear, economical style with cynical or resigned undertone.

It is said that as he lay dying he asked Sir Alfred Ayer visit him and reassure him that there was no life after death.

Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.

There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.

I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them.

It was such a lovely day that I thought it was a pity to get up.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.