“I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations...I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“They can print statistics and count the populations in hundreds of thousands, but to each man a city consists of no more than a few streets, a few houses, a few people. Remove those few and a city exists no longer except as a pain in the memory, like a pain of an amputated leg no longer there.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“There was always another side to a joke, the side of the victim.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“It is a great danger for everyone when what is shocking changes.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“They haven't left us much to believe in, have they?--even disbelief. I can't believe in anything bigger than a home or vaguer than a human being.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“As long as nothing happens anything is possible...”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“You should dream more. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“It was a city to visit, not a city to live in, but it was the city where Wormold had first fallen in love and he was held to it as though to the scene of a disaster. Time gives poetry to a battlefield.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“They had the comfort of not learning from experience.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“You should dream more, Mr. Wormold. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“You are interested in a person, not in life, and people die or leave us ... But if you are interested in life it never lets you down. I am interested in the blueness of cheese. You don't do crosswords, do you, Mr. Wormold? I do, and they are like people: one reaches an end. I can finish any crossword within an hour, but I have a discovery concerning the blueness of cheese that will never come to a conclusion.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“A romantic is usually afraid in case reality doesn't come up to expectations.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“And how is Uncle Edward? or is he dead? I've reached the time of life when relatives die unnoticed.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“A picture postcard is a symptom of loneliness.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“When you feel unable to change your bar you have become old.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“There are times, aren't there, when Shakespeare is a little dull.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“The act of lust and the act of love are the same; it cannot be falsified like a sentiment.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“I said what do you mean by his country? A flag someone invented two hundred years ago? The Bench of Bishops arguing about divorce and the House of Commons shouting Ya at each other across the floor? Or do you mean the T.U.C. and British Railways and the Co-op?”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“Ten years ago he would have followed her, but middle-age is the period of sad caution.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“Childhood was the germ of all mistrust. You were cruelly joked upon and then you cruelly joked. You lost the remembrance of pain through inflicting it.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“Навлязоха в новия квартал Ведадо, застроен с ниски кремавобели къщи — собственост на богаташи. На колкото по-малко етажи беше къщата, толкова по-богат бе обитателят ѝ. Само един милионер можеше да си позволи да построи бунгало върху площ на цял небостъргач.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“He felt the sad relief of a man who realizes that there is one love at least that no longer hurts him.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“He sat heavily down on a tall tubular adjustable chair, which shortened suddenly under his weight and split him on the floor. Somebody always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of a tragedy.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“I don’t care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations… I don’t think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren’t there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“They can print statistics and count the populations in hundreds of thousands, but to each man a city consists of no more than a few streets, a few houses, a few people. Remove those few and a city exists no longer except as a pain in the memory, like the pain of an amputated leg no longer there.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“He had no accomplice except the credulity of other men.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“You can be certain of what you’ve done, you can judge death, but to save a man – that takes more than six years of training, and in the end you can never be quite sure that it was you who saved him.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“You should dream more, Mr Wormold. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.’ 2”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
“You kill a man – that is so easy,’ Dr Hasselbacher said, ‘it needs no skill. You can be certain of what you’ve done, you can judge death, but to save a man – that takes more than six years of training, and in the end you can never be quite sure that it was you who saved him. Germs are killed by other germs. People just survive.”
― Graham Greene, quote from Our Man in Havana
Graham Greene
Born place: in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, The United Kingdom
Born date October 2, 1904
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“Janie and Jodie looked at him as if he were an out-of-date computer chip.”
― Caroline B. Cooney, quote from The Voice on the Radio
“Don’t wait to start living. Live now! Your life should be real in this very moment.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, quote from You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
“While I have the floor, here's a question that's been bothering me for some time. Why do so few writers of heroic or epic fantasy ever deal with the fundamental quandary of their novels . . . that so many of them take place in cultures that are rigid, hierarchical, stratified, and in essence oppressive? What is so appealing about feudalism, that so many free citizens of an educated commonwealth like ours love reading about and picturing life under hereditary lords?
Why should the deposed prince or princess in every clichéd tale be chosen to lead the quest against the Dark Lord? Why not elect a new leader by merit, instead of clinging to the inbred scions of a failed royal line? Why not ask the pompous, patronizing, "good" wizard for something useful, such as flush toilets, movable type, or electricity for every home in the kingdom? Given half a chance, the sons and daughters of peasants would rather not grow up to be servants. It seems bizarre for modern folk to pine for a way of life our ancestors rightfully fought desperately to escape.”
― David Brin, quote from Glory Season
“At the ripe old age of seventeen, Donna had decided that "happily ever after" didn't exist for freaks like her.”
― Karen Mahoney, quote from The Iron Witch
“I don’t think most people realize—and there’s no reason they should—the amount of demeaning garbage you have to take if you want a career in the arts. I mean, going off to med school is something you can say with your head high. Or being a banker or going into insurance or the family business—no problem. But the conversations I had with grown-ups after college… “So you’re done with school now, Bill.” “That’s right.” “So what’s next on the agenda?” Pause. Finally I would say it: “I want to be a writer.” And then they would pause. “A writer.” “I’d like to try.” Third and final pause. And then one of two inevitable replies: either “What are you going to do next?” or “What are you really going to do?” That dread double litany… What are you going to do next?… What are you really going to do?… What are you going to do next?… What are you really going to do…?”
― William Goldman, quote from Adventures in the Screen Trade
A Time to Dance
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Destination Anywhere
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