I was the British spy who had come out of the woodwork and told it how it really was, and anything I said to the contrary only enforced the myth. And since I was writing for a public hooked on Bond and desperate for the antidote, the myth stuck. John le Carre More Quotes by John le Carre More Quotes From John le Carre A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. John le Carre leadershipinspirationalreality 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 powertruththinking In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job. John le Carre linesjobsbook My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak. What I see in my country, progressively over these years, is that the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer. The rich have become indifferent through a philosophy of greed, and the poorer have become hopeless because they're not properly cared for. That's actually something that is happening in many Western societies. Your own, I am told, is not free from it. John le Carre philosophycountryyears There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes. John le Carre ordinarymenbelieve Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are. John le Carre who-we-are The only reward for love is the experience of loving. John le Carre experiencedreamlove I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them. John le Carre tragedycleverthinking A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul. John le Carre sacrificesoulmen The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story. John le Carre catstorieswriting A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it. John le Carre spypopulationliterature The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal. John le Carre personsidentitymen Remember Graham Green's dictum that childhood is the bank balance of the writer? I think that all writers feel alienated. Most of us go back to an alienated childhood in some way or another. I know that I do. John le Carre childhoodbalancethinking People are very secretive - secret even from themselves. John le Carre secretivesecretpeople It was man who ended the Cold War in case you didn't notice. It wasn't weaponry, or technology, or armies or campaigns. It was just man. Not even Western man either, as it happened, but our sworn enemy in the East, who went into the streets, faced the bullets and the batons and said: we've had enough. It was their emperor, not ours, who had the nerve to mount the rostrum and declare he had no clothes. And the ideologies trailed after these impossible events like condemned prisoners, as ideologies do when they've had their day. John le Carre armytechnologywar Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love. John le Carre betrayalbetrayedlove I had two experiences of criminality: one was my conman father, the other was teaching at Eton John le Carre teachingtwofather Most of us live in a condition of secrecy: secret desires, secret appetites, secret hatreds and relationship with the institutions which is extremely intense and uncomfortable. These are, to me, a part of the ordinary human condition. So I don't think I'm writing about abnormal things. ... Artists, in my experience, have very little center. They fake. They are not the real thing. They are spies. I am no exception. John le Carre artistrealwriting It struck him as a bit unfair that, at the age of eight, he should have manifested the same sense of solitude that haunted him at forty-three. John le Carre eightsolitudeshould-have Everyone who is not happy must be shot. John le Carre shotsnot-happy
