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81 " You know, if you live in a place for long you cease to write about it.''Of course I always like to know what the man on the spot has to say,' he replied guardedly.'And then check it with York?' 'Yes. "
― Graham Greene , The Quiet American
82 " He was a man one always forgot. To this day I cannot describe him, except his fatness and his powdered clean-shaven cheeks and his big laugh; all his identity escapes me - except that he was called Joe. There are some men whose names are always shortened. "
83 " Mr Chou cleared his throat, but it was only for an immense expectoration into a tin spittoon decorated with pink blooms. The baby rolled up and down among the tea-dregs and the cat leapt from a cardboard box on to a suitcase. "
84 " They don't believe in anything either. You and your like are trying to make a war with the help of people who just aren't interested.""They don't want communism.""They want enough rice," I said. "They don't want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want.""If Indochina goes--""I know that record. Siam goes. Malaya goes. Indonesia goes. What does 'go' mean? If I believed in your God and another life, I'd bet my future harp against your golden crown that in five hundred years there may be no New York or London, but they'll be growing paddy in these fields, they'll be carrying their produce to market on long poles, wearing their pointed hats. The small boys will be sitting on the buffaloes. I like the buffaloes, they don't like our smell, the smell of Europeans. "
85 " Do you like dogs?''No.''I thought the British were great dog-lovers.''We think Americans love dollars, but there must be exceptions. "
86 " The first dog I ever had was called Prince. I called him after the Black Prince. You know, the fellow who...''Massacred all the women and children in Limoges.''I don't remember that.''The history books gloss it over. "
87 " Hullo, commandant,' I said, 'how's the General?''Which general?' he asked with a shy grin.'Surely in the Caodaist faith,' I said, 'all generals are reconciled. "
88 " The possession of a body tonight seemed a very small thing-perhaps that day I had seen too many bodies which belonged to no one, not even to themselves. We were all expendable. "
89 " Oh, and there was pride, of course. It takes a long time before we cease to feel proud of being wanted. Though God knows why we should feel it, when we look around and see who is wanted too. "
90 " Time has its revenges, but revenge seems so often sour. "
91 " In the moment of shock there is little pain; pain began about three a.m., when I began to plan the life I had still somehow to live and to remember memories in order somehow to eliminate them. Happy memories are the worst, and I tried to remember the unhappy. I was practiced. I had lived all this before. I knew I could do what was necessary, but I was so much older—I felt I had little energy left to reconstruct. "
92 " it is almost as though someone in those vast spaces is trying to communicate a message of good will, for even the names of the stars are friendly. Venus is any woman we love, the Bears are the bears of childhood, "
93 " Why don't you go back to your wife, then? '' It's not easy to live with someone you've injured. "
94 " This is European duplicity, Pyle. We have to make up for our lack of supplies. "
95 " Ερωτευμένος σημαίνει να βλέπεις τον εαυτό σου όπως τον βλέπει ο άλλος, σημαίνει να είσαι ερωτευμένος με το πλαστό και εξωραϊσμένο είδωλό σου. Όταν έχουμε ερωτευθεί, είμαστε ανίκανοι για την τιμή – μια θαρραλέα πράξη δεν είναι τίποτα περισσότερο από την εκτέλεση ενός ρόλου σε κοινό δύο ατόμων. "
96 " All my conversations with Pyle seemed to take grotesque directions. Was it because of his sincerity that they so ran off the customary rails? His conversations never took the corners. "
97 " Αυτό ήταν το πιστεύω μου. Έτσι που είναι οι άνθρωποι, άσ' τους να πολεμάνε, άσ' τους να αγαπιούνται, άσ' τους να σκοτώνονται - εγώ δεν θα αναμειγνυόμουν. Οι συνάδελφοί μου οι δημοσιογράδοι αυτοαποκαλούνται ανταποκριτές· εγώ προτιμούσα τον όρο ρεπόρτερ. Έγραφα ό,τι έβλεπα. Δεν έκανα καμία πράξη - ακόμη και η άποψη πράξη είναι. "
98 " It is odd how reassuring conversation is, especially on abstract subjects: it seems to normalize the strangest surroundings. "
99 " Is the colonel seriously telling us,’ Granger said, ‘that he’s had time to count the enemy dead and not his own? "
100 " Αυτή ήταν η πρώτη μου παρόρμηση, να τον προστατεύσω. Ούτε που διανοήθηκα καν ότι μάλλον τον εαυτό μου έπρεπε να προστατεύσω. Πάντοτε η αθωότητα επιζητά βουβά την προστασία, ενώ πολύ καλά θα κάναμε να προστατευτούμε από αυτήν· η αθωότητα είναι ένας μουγκός λεπρός που έχει χάσει το κουδουνάκι του και περιπλανιέται στον κόσμο, χωρίς να θέλει να βλάψει κανέναν. "