“Do you know what love is? I'll tell you: it is whatever you can still betray.” — John le Carré Copy Share Image
[My novels] introduce levels of intelligence ... moral doubt [and] self-doubt, which may not pertain [to real-world espionage]. — John le Carre Copy Share Image
It's easy to forget what intelligence consists of: luck and speculation. Here and there a windfall, here and there a scoop. — John le Carre Copy Share Image
Once you've lived the inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it. It's a mentality, a double standard of existence. — John le Carre Copy Share Image
“This is a war," Lemas replied. "It's graphic and unpleasant because it's fought on a tiny scale, at close range; fought with… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
“We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
“Haydon had found his charm again. He could do that at the drop of a hat. He drew you and he repelled… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
“He was learning to live on several planes at once. The art of it was to forget everything except the ground you… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They're a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
“A man who lives a part, not to others but alone, is exposed to obvious psychological dangers. In itself the practice of… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
“Smiley himself was one of those solitaires who seem to have come into the world fully educated at the age of eighteen.… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
“There's no way out," he announced with satisfaction, "and no amount of wishful dreaming will produce one. The demon won't go back… — John le Carré Copy Share Image
The creation of George Smiley, the retired spy recalled to hunt for just such a high-ranking mole in 'Tinker, Tailor,' was extremely personal. I… — John le Carre Copy Share
During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity. — John le Carre Copy Share
“You're history, Donohue. You think countries run the fucking world! Go back to fucking Sunday school. It's 'God save our multinational' they're singing these… — John le Carré Copy Share
When you're my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I'd just like to get a few more… — John le Carre Copy Share
The trouble is, when professional spies go out of their way to make a definitive statement about one of their own, the public tends… — John le Carre Copy Share
Ideologies have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves. — John le Carre Copy Share
“Pain observed is journalistic pain. It's diplomatic pain. It's television pain, over as soon as you switch off your beastly set.” — John le Carré Copy Share
The greatest threat to mankind comes from the renunciation of individual scruple in favor of institutional denominators. . . . Real heroism lies, as… — John le Carre Copy Share
“and the wood smoke will roll out of the fireplace on to the carpet we paid too much for on that rainy afternoon in… — John le Carré Copy Share
“Middle children weep longer than their brothers and sisters. Over her mother’s shoulder, stilling her pains and her injured pride, Jackie Lacon watched the… — John le Carré Copy Share
For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed. — John le Carre Copy Share
The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal. — John le Carre Copy Share
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