“The Year of Living Dangerously” quotes

“Bryant, Jillian Edith. Nationality: British. Born: 1938, under the sign of Pisces. Occupation: Assistant to military attaché... British Embassy, Jakarta. Former postings: Brussels, Singapore. Little religious feeling, yet has a reverence for life. This is a spirit like a wavering flame which only needs care to burn high. If this does not happen,...” (continue)(continue reading)

Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“Starvation is a great aphrodisiac.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“- Pete Curtis: That's bullshit!
- Wally O'Sullivan: The worrying thing is, it's well-written bullshit, and it's right here in my paper... I must confess, Hamilton, that I probably would have infused it with a little more skepticism, but bitter resentment won't prevent me from admitting it was a good piece. Well done.”

Michael Murphy - Pete Curtis
Noel Ferrier - Wally O'Sullivan

“The situation: surviving on a few handfuls of rice on this famine-stricken island of Lombok. But, it's the faces you can't forget. Like images in a reoccurring nightmare, they just keep coming back. Haunted faces. Starring blankly back from the windows of tumbled down hovels. The hollow, lifeless eyes. Skin stretched tight across bones. Hands...” (continue)(continue reading)
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“- Billy Kwan: You might learn something.
- Guy Hamilton: I doubt it. The British don't let much slip.
- Billy Kwan: Oh, yes they do. They're just more subtle. You ought to listen harder.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“- Jill Bryant: I found it a bit melodramatic. That's only my opinion, my flatmate was moved to tears. So, there you are.
- Guy Hamilton: What does it take to move you to tears?”

Sigourney Weaver - Jill Bryant
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“- Kumar: At least they will give us discipline.
- Billy Kwan: Stalin had good Discipline. He wiped out 10 million.”

Bembol Roco - Kumar
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“- Guy Hamilton: What do you do at the embassy? Apart from socializing?
- Jill Bryant: I work with Ralph.
- Guy Hamilton: You a spy? You're a spook, aren't you?
- Jill Bryant: If I were, I'd hardly tell you, would I?”
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton
Sigourney Weaver - Jill Bryant

“Why can't you give yourself? Why can't you learn to love?”

Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

Luke. Chapter 3, verse 10. "What then must we do?" Tolstoy asked the same question. He wrote a book with that title. He got so upset about the poverty in Moscow that he went one night into the poorest section and just gave away all his money. You could do that now. Five American dollars would be a fortune to one of these people.

Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“- Pete Curtis: You really think Sukarno's going to let the commies have their own little private army?
- Guy Hamilton: That's what Aidit says.
- Pete Curtis: Aidit's lying.
- Guy Hamilton: Maybe.
- Pete Curtis: Then why report it?
- Guy Hamilton: Maybe he's not lying.”
Michael Murphy - Pete Curtis
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“Boss, take off your sunglasses when you go in. Palace guards say they can tell assassin by his eyes.”

Domingo Landicho - Hortono

“I believed in you. I thought you were a man of light. That's why I gave you those stories you think are so important. I made you see things. I made you feel something about is right. I gave you my trust. So did Jill. I created you.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

You're an enemy here, Hamilton. Like all westerners. President Sukarno tells the West to "go to hell". And, today, Sukarno is the voice of the third world.

Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“- Billy Kwan: The one great advantage of being a dwarf is that you can be wiser than other people and no one envies you.
- Guy Hamilton: You're not a dwarf.
- Billy Kwan: That's what I like about you, Guy. You really don't care, do you? Or, maybe you just don't see.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“People who will become old, betray their dreams, become ghosts.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“- Kumar: We're going to win, because we believe in something.
- Guy Hamilton: Goodbye, Kumar.
- Kumar: Think of me Guy, when you are sitting in some nice cafe in Europe. In my dreams, I am always sitting at the table, by the footpath, drinking coffee.”
Bembol Roco - Kumar
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“- Billy Kwan: That's the real Jakarta. Scrounging for a few handfuls of rice to keep them alive another day. That's a story you journalists don't tell in your reports.
- Guy Hamilton: Well, nobody wants to hear it.
- Billy Kwan: Tell them anyway!”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“When a thought crosses your mind, it's been on the shortest trip in Jakarta.”

Michael Murphy - Pete Curtis

“- Billy Kwan: What do you think of her?
- Guy Hamilton: Not my type.
- Billy Kwan: Oh. Why's that?
- Guy Hamilton: It's her attitude. You know how the British can be so damn superior? It's like the colonel with his gin, tonic and ice.
- Billy Kwan: Jill is not like that at all.”

Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“- Billy Kwan: You just don't think about the major issues. You do whatever you can about the misery that's in front of you. Add your light to the sum of light. You think that's naïve?
- Guy Hamilton: Yup.
- Billy Kwan: It's all right. Most journalists do.
- Guy Hamilton: We can't afford to get involved.
- Billy Kwan: Typical journo's answer.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

“- Billy Kwan: Don't take it personally. You're just a symbol of the West.
- Guy Hamilton: I feel more like a spittoon.”
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan
Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton

Krishna says to him, "All is crowded by desire, Arjuna, as a fire by smoke, as a mirror by dust. From these, it blinds the soul".
Linda Hunt - Billy Kwan

“Our first air conditioned hotel. Here, Americans and Europeans pay to pick up cold.”
Bembol Roco - Kumar

“- Guy Hamilton: Missed anything?
- Wally O'Sullivan: Yeah, 63 minutes of excruciating boredom.”

Mel Gibson - Guy Hamilton
Noel Ferrier - Wally O'Sullivan