“‘He’s a good chap in his way. Serious. Not one of those noisy bastards at the Continental. A quiet American,’ I summed him precisely up, as I might have said, ‘A blue lizard,’ ‘A white elephant.’

Vigot said, “Yes.” He seemed to be looking for words on his desk with which to convey his meaning as precisely as I had done. ‘A very quiet American.'”

—from The Quiet American by Graham Greene