The Quiet American
‘What did you say in your cable?’ I asked. He replied seriously and literally, ‘“Grieved to report your son died a soldier’s death in cause of Democracy.” The Minister signed it.’ ‘A soldier’s death,’ I said. ‘Mightn’t that prove a bit confusing? I mean to the folks at home. The Economic Aid Mission doesn’t sound like the Army. Do you get Purple He
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I'm still struggling with the overall concept of the Quiet American. Not that such a thing exists, of course, but why it was so salient that it had to pop as the title. Clearly, somebody relatively unknown and quiet with good intentions can still be massively harmful if they misplace their enthusiasms and their work. Perhaps that's all there is to it?
So much of the war is sitting around and doing nothing, waiting for somebody else. With no guarantee of the amount of time you have left it doesn’t seem worth starting even a train of thought.
Graham Greene • The Quiet American
She had attached herself to youth and hope and seriousness and now they had failed her more than age and despair.
Graham Greene • The Quiet American
Lovely turn of phrase.
I said, ‘We seem to have talked about pretty nearly everything except God. We’d better leave him to the small hours.’ ‘You don’t believe in Him, do you?’ ‘No.’ ‘Things to me wouldn’t make sense without Him.’ ‘They don’t make sense to me with him.’
Graham Greene • The Quiet American
Smart atheist dialog is always among my favorites.
‘You can rule me out,’ I said. ‘I’m not involved. Not involved,’ I repeated. It had been an article of my creed. The human condition being what it was, let them fight, let them love, let them murder, I would not be involved. My fellow journalists called themselves correspondents; I preferred the title of reporter. I wrote what I saw. I took no acti
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Minor Spoiler (or note to self on future re-read): This is setup for Fowler BECOMING INVOLVED later in the in the book.
There was also a book of chess problems. It didn’t seem much for the end of the working day, but, after all, he had had Phuong. Tucked away behind the anthology there was a paper-backed book called The Physiology of Marriage. Perhaps he was studying sex, as he had studied the East, on paper. And the keyword was marriage. Pyle believed in being invo
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This concept of being involved will come up a bunch.
The lieutenant said, ‘Have you seen enough?’ speaking savagely, almost as though I had been responsible for these deaths. Perhaps to the soldier the civilian is the man who employs him to kill, who includes the guilt of murder in the pay-envelope and escapes responsibility.
Graham Greene • The Quiet American
‘Go in and find a table. I had better look after Pyle.’ That was my first instinct—to protect him. It never occurred to me that there was greater need to protect myself. Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world
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Brilliant metaphor. We almost always mean well.
he was as incapable of imagining pain or danger to himself as he was incapable of conceiving the pain he might cause others.
Graham Greene • The Quiet American
That sounds a lot like a lot of Americans I know, raised on a warped sense of heroism and an unquestioning valor.