Graham Greene

From childhood I had never believed in permanence, and yet I had longed for it

Lose life and one would lose nothing again for ever. I envied those who could believe in a God and I distrusted them.

person as though she were not there. Sometimes she seemed invisible like peace

The war was very tidy and clean at that distance

The canal was full of bodies: I am reminded now of an Irish stew containing too much meat

Two can play at that game.’ I too took my eyes away; we didn’t want to be reminded of how little we counted, how quickly, simply and anonymously death came

One knew what these people believed even if one didn’t share their belief: they were human beings, not just grey drained cadavers

Mal chance,’ the lieutenant said. He bent down and turned the child over. He was wearing a holy medal round his neck, and I said to myself, ‘The juju doesn’t work.’ There was a gnawed piece of loaf under his body. I thought, ‘I hate war.’

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

I wondered, but oddly without jealousy, whether Phuong was at the flat