Destruction after all is a form of creation. Graham Greene More Quotes by Graham Greene More Quotes From Graham Greene 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 swingsdiscoverymen 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 maskalternativesliterature 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 realwritingcharacter Eternity is said not to be an extension of time but an absence of time. Graham Greene eternityabsencesaid So it always is: when you escape to a desert the silence shouts in your ear. Graham Greene desertsilenceears However great a man's fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance - so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamor to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature. Graham Greene suicidalsuicidemen I measured love by the extent of my jealousy. Graham Greene Pain is easy to write. In pain we're all happily individual. But what can one write about happiness? Graham Greene paineasywriting I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings. Graham Greene wishlittlesmight I'm tired and I'm sick to death of being without you. Graham Greene im-tiredtiredsick Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel; sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust. Graham Greene twistsinsecuritypoison 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 novelistsimaginationmemories Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. Graham Greene winedrinkinglying I aim to be content with what I produce. It's an aim I never achieve, but I go over my work word by word, time and again, so as to be as little dissatisfied as possible. Graham Greene achievewritinglittles There's a virtue in slowness, which we have lost Graham Greene slownessvirtuelost In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock! Graham Greene lovepeaceyears All good novelists have bad memories. Graham Greene bad-memoriesnovelistsmemories Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries? Graham Greene patriotismcountryworld A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction. Graham Greene distancefake-peoplewriting Innocence is a kind of insanity Graham Greene innocencekindinsanity
