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Quote by Graham Greene

“A ruling passion gives to a shelf of novels the unity of a system.”

Quote by Graham Greene

Author

Graham Greene was a renowned British writer born on October 2, 1904. His works are characterized by deep insight and unique narrative techniques, and he is hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. Greene's writing spans a variety of themes, including spy novels, religious novels, and noir novels. more

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“Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”

Ifs World Country Mess Patriotism Loyal

Book:The Portable Graham Greene

Source: The Portable Graham Greene

“So much of a novelist's writing, as I have said, takes place in the unconscious: in those depths the last word is written before the first word appears on the paper. We remember details of our story, we do not invent them.”

Writing Firsts Said Stories Lasts Remember Written Paper Depth Details Novelists Unconscious Last Words

Book:The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

“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.”

Knows Writing May Real Enough Character Use Remember Views Novel Majors Stuck Real Life Minors Can Not Interiors Decoration Toothpaste

Book:Conversations with Graham Greene

Source: Conversations with Graham Greene

“Melodrama is one of my working tools and it enables me to obtain effects that would be unobtainable otherwise; on the other hand I am not deliberately melodramatic; don't get too annoyed if I say that I write in the way that I do because I am what I am.”

Ifs Way Writing Hands Would Be Effects Tools Annoyed Melodrama I Am What I Am

Book:Conversations with Graham Greene

Source: Conversations with Graham Greene

“Its typical of Mexico, of the whole human race perhaps violence in favour of an ideal and then the ideal lost but the violence just going on.”

Humans Whole Lost Race Violence Ideals Human Race Mexico Typical Favour

Book:Another Mexico

Source: Another Mexico

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

World Feels Body Suffering Numbers

Book:The Quiet American

Source: The Quiet American

“I write about situations that are common, universal might be more correct, in which my characters are involved and from which only faith can redeem them, though often the actual manner of the redemption is not immediately clear. They sin, but there is no limit to God's mercy and because this is important, there is a difference between not confessing in fact, and the complacent and the pious may not realize it.”

Writing May Important Character Facts Might Realizing Differences Sin Common Situation Clear Involved Limits Mercy Universal Redemption Pious Complacent Confessing

Book:Conversations with Graham Greene

Source: Conversations with Graham Greene

“Nobody here could ever talk about a heaven on earth. Heaven remained rigidly in its proper place on the other side of death, and on this side flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meanness that elsewhere people so cleverly hushed up. Here you could love human beings nearly as God loved them, knowing the worst: you didn't love a pose, a pretty dress, a sentiment artfully assumed.”

People Humans Earth Heaven Sides Human Beings Knowing Worst Dresses Injustice Cruelty God Love Sentiments Elsewhere Meanness Heaven On Earth

Author:Graham Greene

“Death will come in any case, and there is a long afterwards if the priests are right and nothing to fear if they are wrong.”

Ifs Long Cases Priests

Book:The Honorary Consul: A Novel

Source: The Honorary Consul: A Novel

“That instinct for human character that is perhaps inherent in an imaginative writer.”

Humans Character Instinct Inherent Imaginative

Author:Graham Greene