Unfortunately it is the weak who destroy the strong. John le Carre More Quotes by John le Carre More Quotes From John le Carre When you're my age, you have the feeling sometimes that you're seeing the show come round again. John le Carre age feelings sometimes Why did I desert Labour? Total bloody disillusionment. The party was a corpse. It had no ideology, it became detached, old, spineless and needed to go. John le Carre disillusionment desert party The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and personal confusion. Fifty years on, I don't associate the book with anything that ever happened to me, save for one wordless encounter at London airport when a worn-out, middle-aged military kind of man in a stained raincoat slammed a handful of mixed foreign change on to the bar and in gritty Irish accents ordered himself as much Scotch as it would buy. In that moment, Alec Leamas was born. Or so my memory, not always a reliable informant, tells me. John le Carre military memories book When it's going well [writing] goes terribly fast. It isn't at all surprising to write a chapter in a day, which for me is about twenty-two pages. When it's going badly, it isn't really going badly; it's just the beginning. John le Carre twenties writing two On one hand we go like hell for every terror cell we can find, we penetrate it, we destroy it. On the other hand, there is a much bigger need for a political solution. John le Carre political cells hands The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be. Bush has an arm-lock on God. And God has very particular political opinions. God appointed America to save the world in any way that suits America. God appointed Israel to be the nexus of America's Middle Eastern policy, and anyone who wants to mess with that idea is a) anti-Semitic, b) anti-American, c) with the enemy, and d) a terrorist. John le Carre religious war ideas I've got more than one string to my bow, and I thought I'd give this one a twang. John le Carre strings bows giving 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 desperate spy writing Never trade a secret, you'll always get the short end of the bargain. John le Carre trade ends secret I mean, you can't be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government's policy is benevolent, can you now? John le Carre ruthless government mean Blackmail is more effective than bribery. John le Carre blackmail bribery Yet it's not for want of future that I'm here, he thought. It's for want of a present. John le Carre want It's a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can. John le Carre principles stories writing You can't make war against terror. Terror is a technique of battle. It's a tactic that has been employed since time immemorial. You can conduct clandestine action against terrorists, and that must be done. John le Carre technique battle war Only Esmeralda was not weeping. Instead she wore that wooden look that whites mistake for churlishenss or indifference. Woodrew knew it was neither. It was familiarity. This how real life is constituted, it said. This is grief and hatred and people hacked to death. This is the everyday we have known since we were born and you Wazungu have not. John le Carre grief real mistake Each my book feels like my last book. And then I think, like a dedicated alcoholic, that one more won't do me any harm. John le Carre dedicated book thinking A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world. John le Carre I began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name. John le Carre name service you butterfly 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 borrowed elements of people I admired and invested them in this mythical character. I'm such a fluent, specious person now, but I was an extremely awkward fellow in those days. John le Carre person creation character people I write and walk and swim and drink. John le Carre write walk drink swim
