John le Carre Quotes - Page 7

Quotes about:

• Gerald Westerby, he told himself. You were present at your birth. You were present at your several marriages and at some of your divorces, and you will certainly be present at your funeral. High time, in our considered view, that you were present at certain other crucial moments in your history.

  John le Carre

  Divorce, Views, Funeral

  4 Copy quote

• George Smiley: [quoting an old letter from Bill Haydon about Jim Prideaux] He has that heavy quiet that commands. He's my other half. Between us we'd make one marvelous man. He asks nothing better than to be in my company or that of my wicked, divine friends, and I'm vastly tickled by the compliment. He's virgin, about eight foot tall, and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge

  John le Carre

  Men, Eight, Feet

  "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". www.imdb.com. 1979.

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  7 Copy quote

• I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read a book from end to end.

  John le Carre

  Father, Book, Grew Up

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Cells, Hands, Political

  "The Book Show", Interview with Ramona Koval, Australian Broadcasting Commission Radio National, November 19, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• It's death, that's what I'm suffering from. The systematic encroachment of the big D.

  John le Carre

  Death, Suffering, Systematic

  John le Carre (2002). “Smiley's People”, p.191, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Writing, Spy, Desperate

  "John le Carré: 'I was a secret even to myself'". www.theguardian.com. April 12, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• We've had enough." He took back the report and jammed it under his arm. "We've had a bellyful, in fact." "And like everyone who's had enough," said Control as Alleline noisily left the room, "he wants more.

  John le Carre

  Enough Said, Want, Arms

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.141, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Mean, Government, Ruthless

  John le Carre (2001). “The Spy Who Came In from the Cold”, p.15, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

  John le Carre

  Literature, Fool, Language

  4 Copy quote

• For better or worse, I've been involved in the description of political conflict.

  John le Carre

  Political, Conflict, Description

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  War, Battle, Technique

  "The Book Show" with Ramona Koval, November 19, 2008.

  9 Copy quote

• I don't know whether it's age or maturity, but I certainly find myself committed more and more to the looser forms of Western democracy at any price.

  John le Carre

  Maturity, Democracy, Age

  4 Copy quote

• To possess another language is to possess another soul.

  John le Carre

  Soul, Language

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.57, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Dread, Committees

  5 Copy quote

• God is in his Heaven and the first night was a wow.

  John le Carre

  Night, Heaven, Firsts

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.179, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• I once heard someone say morality was method. Do you hold with that? I suppose you wouldn't. You would say that morality was vested in the aim, I expect. Difficult to know what one's aims are, that's the trouble, specially if you're British.

  John le Carre

  Morality, Trouble, British

  John le Carre (2002). “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, p.71, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• And the ideologies trailed after these impossible events like condemned prisoners, as ideologies do when they've had their day. Because they have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves.

  John le Carre

  Heart, Angel, Self

  4 Copy quote

• Elections are a Western jerk-off.

  John le Carre

  Election, Jerk, Western

  "The Mission Song". Book by John le Carre, 2006.

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Wise, Cheating, Childhood

  "John le Carre: A man of great intelligence" by Andrew Anthony, www.theguardian.com. October 31, 2009.

  8 Copy quote

• Those who are not with Mr. Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because I'm dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddam's downfall -- just not on Bush's terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.

  John le Carre

  Hypocrisy, Enemy, Odd

  "British Novelist John le Carré on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa and His New Novel, “Our Kind of Traitor”". "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. November 25, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it.

  John le Carre

  Believe, Literature, Should

  4 Copy quote

• Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.

  John le Carre

  Baby, Book, Littles

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  People, Literature, Messages

  4 Copy quote

• You have no idea how humiliating it was, as a boy, to suddenly have all your clothes, your toys, snatched by the bailiff. I mean we were a middle-class family, it's not as if it was happening up and down the street. It made me ashamed, I felt dirty.

  John le Carre

  Dirty, Mean, Boys

  4 Copy quote

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