Graham Greene Quotes - Page 5

Quotes about:

• The next best thing to talking to her is talking about her.

  Graham Greene

  Talking, Next, Best Things

  Graham Greene (1974). “The end of the affair”, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask?

  Graham Greene

  Alternatives, Literature, Mask

  Graham Greene (1966). “The Comedians”

  13 Copy quote

• To be in love is to see yourself as someone else sees you, it is to be in love with the falsified and exalted image of yourself. In love we are incapable of honor - the courageous act is no more than playing a part to an audience of two.

  Graham Greene

  Love Is, Two, Honor

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Collected Edition: The quiet American”

  18 Copy quote

• Never presume yours is a better morality.

  Graham Greene

  Morality

  Graham Greene (1996). “Travels with My Aunt”, p.39, Oberon Books

  7 Copy quote

• It is impossible to go through life without trust: that is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.

  Graham Greene

  Relationship, Trust, Faith

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Collected Edition: The ministry of fear”

  8 Copy quote

• So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days. One may be preoccupied with shopping and income tax returns and chance conversations, but the stream of the unconscious continues to flow undisturbed, solving problems, planning ahead: one sits down sterile and dispirited at the desk, and suddenly the words come as though from the air: the situations that seemed blocked in a hopeless impasse move forward: the work has been done while one slept or shopped or talked with friends.

  Graham Greene

  Moving Forward, Writing, Shopping

  Graham Greene (1974). “The end of the affair”, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• The subject of a novel is not the plot. Who remembers what happened to Lucien de Rebempre in the end?

  Graham Greene

  Plot, Fiction, Remember

  8 Copy quote

• It is one of the strange discoveries a man can make that life, however you lead it, contains moments of exhilaration; there are always comparisons which can be made with worse times: even in danger and misery the pendulum swings.

  Graham Greene

  Men, Discovery, Swings

  Graham Greene (1971). “The Power and the Glory”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  21 Copy quote

• Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

  Graham Greene

  Dumb, Would Be, Literature

  'The Quiet American' (1955) pt. 1, ch. 3

  60 Copy quote

• A man kept his character even when he was insane.

  Graham Greene

  Character, Men, Insane

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Collected Edition: The ministry of fear”

  11 Copy quote

• One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly. No, major characters emerge; minor ones may be photographed.

  Graham Greene

  Real, Character, Writing

  Graham Greene, Henry J. Donaghy (1992). “Conversations with Graham Greene”, p.42, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  15 Copy quote

• Thought's a luxury. Do you think the peasant sits and thinks of God and Democracy when he gets inside his mud hut at night?

  Graham Greene

  Night, Thinking, Luxury

  Graham Greene (1992). “The Quiet American”

  13 Copy quote

• In our hearts there is a ruthless dictator, ready to contemplate the misery of a thousand strangers if it will ensure the happiness of the few we love.

  Graham Greene

  Heart, Misery, Dictator

  Graham Greene (1960). “The Heart of The Matter”

  8 Copy quote

• Unhappiness in a child accumulates because he sees no end to the dark tunnel. The thirteen weeks of a term might just as well be thirteen years.

  Graham Greene

  Children, Dark, Tunnels

  13 Copy quote

• I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.

  Graham Greene

  Hate, I Hate You, Hate You

  12 Copy quote

• Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil - or else an absolute ignorance.

  Graham Greene

  Happiness, Ignorance, Men

  Graham Greene (1960). “The Heart of The Matter”

  16 Copy quote

• Suffering is not increased by numbers; one body can contain all the suffering the world can feel.

  Graham Greene

  Numbers, Suffering, World

  Graham Greene (1992). “The Quiet American”

  6 Copy quote

• We can love with our minds, but can we love only with our minds? Love extends itself all the time, so that we can love even with our senseless nails: we love even with our clothes, so that a sleeve can feel a sleeve.

  Graham Greene

  Mind Love, Clothes, Nails

  Graham Greene (1974). “The end of the affair”, Vintage

  13 Copy quote

• She was not too young to be wise, but she was too young to know that wisdom shouldn't be spoken aloud when you are happy.

  Graham Greene

  Wise, Being Wise, Young

  Graham Greene (1976). “The third man: Loser takes all”, Random House (UK)

  5 Copy quote

• Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

  Graham Greene

  Dumb, Literature, World

  'The Quiet American' (1955) pt. 1, ch. 3

  57 Copy quote

• It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death: I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.

  Graham Greene

  Eye, Our Love, Bleeding

  Graham Greene (1951). “The End of the Affair”, London Heinemann [1951]

  4 Copy quote

• For an artist to think in terms of success is like a priest trying to think in terms of success.

  Graham Greene

  Success, Thinking, Artist

  10 Copy quote

• The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn.

  Graham Greene

  Writing, Novelists, Literature

  Graham Greene (1994). “In Search of a Character: Two African Journals”, Penguin USA

  11 Copy quote

• All good novelists have bad memories. What you remember comes out as journalism; what you forget goes into the compost of the imagination.

  Graham Greene

  Memories, Imagination, Novelists

  9 Copy quote

• One forgets so quickly one's own youth.

  Graham Greene

  Youth, Forget

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Collected Edition: The quiet American”

  5 Copy quote

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