Richard Llewellyn was a British novelist best known for his acclaimed novel, "How Green Was My Valley," which won the National Book Award in 1940. Born Richard Herbert Vivian Lloyd in 1906, his works often reflect his Welsh heritage and explore themes of family, community, and change. Llewellyn's evocative storytelling and rich characterizations have left a lasting impact on 20th-century literature. He passed away in 1983.
Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever.
The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it.
I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me those who are to come. I looked back and saw my father's people and my mother's people and in front to see my children and my grandchildren and behind me to see my ancestors. And they all were with me. They do not leave me, and I carry their strength and their love with me, and it is what I am.
There is no fence nor hedge around time that is gone. You can go back and have what you like of it, if you can remember.
I refuse to be angry, and I refuse to hurt. I should have done both, but I can't see that it would have proved much.
There is no greater heaven than the heart of a loving mother.
I have seen men walk into the sea and drown and destroy themselves, but I have never yet seen any man or any number of men come back from the sea. The sea must have made them all it's own for keeps.
Time changes everything. That's what people say, it's not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were.
I have seen men looking at me and I have seen in their eyes something that, in me, was reflected back to them.
They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.
The heart loves, but moods and tempers vary, so the heart is at war with itself.
If you would have me go, you must have me as I am.