The truth has never been of any real value to any human being - it is a symbol for mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.
From Graham Greene
There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.
Reality in our century is not something to be faced.
Sentimentality - that's what we call the sentiment we don't share.
People talk about the courage of condemned men walking to the place of execution: sometimes it needs as much courage to walk with any kind of bearing towards another person's habitual misery.
Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.
Nobody thinks in terms of human beings. Governments don't, why should we? They talk about people and the proletariat; I talk about the suckers and the mugs. It's the same thing.
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 economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn.
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.
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives