Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene OM CH, better known by his pen name Graham Greene, was an English novelist and author regarded by some as one of the great writers of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers. He was shortlisted, in 1967, for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Through 67 years of writings, which included over 25 novels, he...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 October 1904
As the end of the what is called the 'sexual life' the only love which has lasted is the love which has everything, every disappointment, every failure and every betrayal, which has accepted even the sad fact that in the end there is no desire so deep as the simple desire for companionship.
Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim
I have often noticed that a bribe has that effect -- it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.
Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.
The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him.
No human being can really understand another, and no one can arrange another's happiness.
Heresy is another word for freedom of thought.
They are always saying God loves us. If that's love I'd rather have a bit of kindness.
To take an Annamite to bed with you is like taking a bird: they twitter and sing on your pillow
Hate is a lack of imagination.
A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.
You cannot conceive, nor can I, of the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God.
When you visualized a man or a woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity . . . that was a quality God's image carried with it . . . when you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination.
Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt