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
We mustn't complain too much of being comedians -- it's an honorable profession. If only we could be good ones the world might gain at least a sense of style. We have failed -- that's all. We are bad comedians, we aren't bad men.
Behind the complicated details of the world stand the simplicities: God is good, the grown-up man or woman knows the answer to every question, there is such a thing as truth, and justice is as measured and faultless as a clock. Our heroes are simple: they are brave, they tell the truth, they are good swordsmen and they are never in the long run really defeated. That is why no later books satisfy us like those which were read to us in childhood --for those promised a world of great simplicity of which we knew the rules, but the later books are complicated and contradictory with experience; they are formed out of our own disappointing memories.
He was impregnably armored by his good intentions and his ignorance.
A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to himself is only an ordinary man. It is only if the murderer is a good man that he can be regarded as monstrous.
For a good man fame is always a problem.
Cynicism is cheap - you can buy it at any Monoprix store - it's built into all poor-quality goods.
Perhaps it is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives.
They are always saying God loves us. If that's love I'd rather have a bit of kindness.
Heresy is another word for freedom of thought.
No human being can really understand another, and no one can arrange another's happiness.
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.
Cynicism is cheap -- you can buy it at any Monoprix store -- it's built into all poor-quality goods.
To take an Annamite to bed with you is like taking a bird: they twitter and sing on your pillow
That whisky priest, I wish we had never had him in the house.