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Graham Greene Quotes about Character

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One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is

One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly. No, major characters emerge; minor ones may be photographed.

Graham Greene
Real, Character, Writing
Graham Greene, Henry J. Donaghy (1992). “Conversations with Graham Greene”, p.42, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I write about situations that are common, universal might be more correct, in which my characters are involved and from which only faith can redeem them, though often the actual manner of the redemption is not immediately clear. They sin, but there is no limit to God's mercy and because this is important, there is a difference between not confessing in fact, and the complacent and the pious may not realize it.

Graham Greene
Character, Writing, Differences
Graham Greene, Henry J. Donaghy (1992). “Conversations with Graham Greene”, p.38, Univ. Press of Mississippi

A man kept his character even when he was insane.

Graham Greene
Character, Men, Insane
Graham Greene (1973). “The Collected Edition: The ministry of fear”

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

Graham Greene
Character, Majority, Unconscious
"Graham Greene, How Do You Do It?" by Francis X. Clines, archive.nytimes.com. October 09, 1985.

That instinct for human character that is perhaps inherent in an imaginative writer.

Graham Greene
Character, Instinct, Imaginative
"Getting to Know the General: the Story of an Involvement". Book by Graham Greene, 1984.

One gets started, and then, suddenly, one cannot remember what toothpaste they use . . . 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.

Graham Greene
Character, Doe, Use

Like the characters in Chekhov, they have no reserves -– you learn the most intimate secrets. You get an impression of a world peopled by eccentrics, of odd professions, almost incredible stupidities, and, to balance them, amazing endurances.

Graham Greene
Character, Stupidity, Secret
Graham Greene (1982). “Another Mexico”, Viking Adult

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