Give a man a car of his own and he leaves humility and common sense behind him in the garage. John le Carre More Quotes by John le Carre More Quotes From John le Carre I think that where I've watched a movie go wrong, it's usually because the dread committee has been interfering with it. John le Carre committeesdreadthinking I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services. John le Carre witchcoldwar More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature. John le Carre centuryliteraturemade The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London. John le Carre intelligence-servicessecretopposites The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story. John le Carre strugglestoriesworld 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 novels under my belt. John le Carre beltsagestories You should have died when I killed you. John le Carre literatureshouldshould-have I don't think that there are very many good writers who don't live without a sense of tension. If they haven't got one immediately available to them, then they usually manage to manufacture it in their private lives. John le Carre tensionprivate-lifethinking Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage. John le Carre spyaveragepeople Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that. John le Carre foollanguageliterature By the age of 9 or 10, I knew that I had to cut my own cloth and make my own way. John le Carre cuttingageway My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak. John le Carre definitionscarefirsts The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how our messages will be received. John le Carre literaturemessagespeople The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience, do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents, however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat. John le Carre childhoodwisecheating Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it. John le Carre literatureshouldbelieve Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic. John le Carre fiction-writersknowsfiction 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 double-standardstandardsworld Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie. John le Carre piedustwriting In the last 15 or 20 years, I've watched the British press simply go to hell. There seems to be no limit, no depths to which the tabloids won't sink. I don't know who these people are but they're little pigs. John le Carre pigspeopleyears America has entered one of its periods of historic madness, but this is the worst I can remember. John le Carre madnessliteratureamerica
