Graham Greene

When we are not sure, we are alive.

The Third Man.

No human being can really understand another, and no one can arrange another's happiness.

A major character has to come somehow out of the unconscious.

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.

Writing is a form of therapy. Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human situation.

In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.

My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.

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.

Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate . . . 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 name?