People who've had very unhappy childhoods are pretty good at inventing themselves. If nobody invents you for yourself, nothing is left but… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
It is also the pardonable vanity of lonely people everywhere to assume that they have no counterparts. — John le Carre Copy Share Image
A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they're… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
People like you should be stopped, Mr. Woodrow,' she mused aloud, with a puzzled shake of her wise head. 'You think you're… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people. — John le Carre Copy Share Image
I think that all writers feel alienated. ... I know that I do. ... I still feel, as I think most creative… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
Only Esmeralda was not weeping. Instead she wore that wooden look that whites mistake for churlishenss or indifference. Woodrew knew it was… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
In the last 15 or 20 years, I've watched the British press simply go to hell. There seems to be no limit,… — John le Carre 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… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most… — John le Carre 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
In my day, MI6 - which I called the Circus in the books - stank of wartime nostalgia. People were defined by… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
When it comes to recruiting people for the secret world, what the recruiters are looking for is pretty much what I had.… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
I want to be like Ford Madox Ford. I want to be talking to somebody across a fire, and I want him… — John le Carre Copy Share Image
When I was 16 or 17, anyone could have had me if they sang the right song and recruited me in the… — John le Carre 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Ideologies have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves. — John le Carre Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
