The Foreign Correspondent Quotes

“Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what they read.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“hands”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“They settled in for the four-hour trip—at least that, maybe more with the snow. Simard slept, Hamilton read the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. “Article on Italy today,” he said to Weisz. “Have you seen it?” “No. What’s it about?” “The state of Italian politics, struggle against the antifascist forces. Which are all Bolshevik-influenced, they’d have you believe.” Weisz shrugged, nothing new there. Hamilton scanned the page, then read, “‘…thwarted by the patriotic forces of the OVRA…’ Tell me, Weisz, what does that stand for? You see it now and again, but mostly they just use the initials.” “It’s said to mean Organizzazione di Vigilanza e Repressione dell’ Antifascismo, which would be the Organization for the Vigilant Repression of Antifascism, but there’s another version. I’ve heard that it comes from a memo Mussolini wrote, where he said he wanted a national police organization, with tentacles that would reach into Italian life like a piovra, which is a mythical giant octopus. But the word was mistyped as ovra, and Mussolini liked the sound of it, thought it was frightening, so OVRA became the official name.” “Really,” Hamilton said. “That’s worth knowing.” He took out a pad and pen and wrote down the story. “Watch out, it’s the piovra!” Weisz’s grin was tart. “Not so funny, in real life,” he said. “No, I suppose it isn’t. Still, it’s hard to take the man seriously.” “Yes, I know,” Weisz said. Mussolini, the comic buffoon, a widely held view, but what he’d done wasn’t comic at all.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“Ahh, fuck this.” “Yes,” Weisz said. “And that will do for an epitaph.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“The French would be outraged, but then, the French were habitually outraged.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“read it.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“news—news which was withheld or slanted in Italy, where journalism had been defined, by law, as a supportive adjunct to national policy.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“spies and journalists were fated to go through life together, and it was sometimes hard to tell one from the other. Their jobs weren’t all that different: they talked to politicians, developed sources in government bureaux, and dug around for secrets.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent

“A fat man with a Nazi party pin in his lapel played Cole Porter on a white piano.”
― Alan Furst, The Foreign Correspondent