John le Carré - Spy Quotes

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The merit of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, then — or its offence, depending where you stood — was not that it was authentic, but that it was credible.

John le Carré
It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters.

John le Carré
For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed.

John le Carré
I realised that now and forever more I was to be branded as the spy turned writer, rather than as a writer who, like scores of his kind, had done a stint in the secret world, and written about it.

John le Carré
We have learned in recent years to translate almost all of political life in terms of conspiracy. And the spy novel, as never before, really, has come into its own.

John le Carré
It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?

John le Carré
A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

John le Carré
Graham Greene once referred to a chip of ice that has to be in the writer's heart. And that is the strain: that you must abstain from relationships and yet at the same time engage in them. There you have, I think, the real metaphysical relationship between the writer and the spy.

John le Carré
You cannot make a case for not spying on terrorist organizations. You've got to spy the hell out of them.

John le Carré