I write and walk and swim and drink. John le Carre More Quotes by John le Carre More Quotes From John le Carre When a problem threatens to engulf you, there's nothing like irrelevant detail to keep your head above water. John le Carre details problem water I think that most of my books are part of some process of self-education, often about the places I go to. Most of all, they are about the peculiar tension between institutional loyalty and loyalty to oneself; the mystery of patriotism, for a Brit of my age and generation, where it runs, how it should be defined, what it's worth and what a corrupting force it can be when misapplied. All that stuff is just in me and it comes out in the characters. I don't mean to preach, but I know I do, and I'm a very flawed person. It's quite ridiculous. John le Carre loyalty running book I move my lips when I read -- I'm painfully slow -- so I like really good English. John le Carre lips moving Multi-billion-dollar multinational corporations view the exploitation of the world's sick and dying as a sacred duty to their shareholders. John le Carre sick dying views 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, whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely. John le Carre lonely writing thinking Give a man a car of his own and he leaves humility and common sense behind him in the garage. John le Carre common-sense humility men America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. John le Carre pigs war america To possess another language is to possess another soul. John le Carre language soul In itself, the practice of deception is not particularly exacting; it is a matter of experience, of professional expertise, it is a facility most of us can acquire. John le Carre deception practice matter It's death, that's what I'm suffering from. The systematic encroachment of the big D. John le Carre systematic suffering death We lie to one another every day, in the sweetest way, often unconsciously. We dress ourselves and compose ourselves in order to present ourselves to one another. John le Carre fake-people lying reality 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 here-and-there luck forget I think bankers will always get away with whatever they can get away with. John le Carre get-away bankers thinking Unfortunately it is the weak who destroy the strong. John le Carre strong weak People like you should be stopped, Mr. Woodrow,' she mused aloud, with a puzzled shake of her wise head. 'You think you're solving the world's problems but actually you're the problem. John le Carre wise people thinking Novelists are not equipped to make a movie, in my opinion. They make their own movie when they write: they're casting, they're dressing the scene, they're working out where the energy of the scene is coming from and they're also relying tremendously on the creative imagination of the reader. John le Carre work-out imagination writing I made a series of wrong decisions about moderately recent books, and I've sold the rights to studios for ridiculous amounts of money and the films have never been made. That's the saddest thing of all, because they're locked up and no-one else can make them. John le Carre decision rights book I taught principally German language and literature at Eton. But any master with private pupils must be prepared to teach anything they ask for. That can be as diverse as the early paintings of Salvador Dali or how bumblebees manage to fly. John le Carre german-language bumblebees literature I was quite able at the insignificant work I did in MI6, but absolutely dysfunctional in my domestic life. I had no experience of fatherhood. I had no example of marital bliss or the family unit. John le Carre fatherhood able example In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know. John le Carre issues war reality
