John le Carre
John le Carre
David John Moore Cornwellis a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, he worked for the Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service, and began writing novels under a pen name. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, became an international best-seller, and remains one of his best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time author...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth19 October 1931
hypocrisy enemy odd
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.
philosophical thinking people
A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they're nowhere.
laughing world things-to-do
If you see the world as gloomily as I see it, the only thing to do is laugh or shoot yourself.
eye volcanoes wife
Wives?" she asked, interrupting him. For a moment, he had assumed she was tuning to the novel. Then he saw her waiting, suspicious eyes, so he replied cautiously, "None active," as if wives were volcanoes.
misery these-days journalist
What else has a journalist to do these days, after all, but report life's miseries?
enough-said want arms
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.
writing two pages
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.
status-quo one-thing
There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo.
christian real lying
The greatest threat to mankind comes from the renunciation of individual scruple in favor of institutional denominators. . . . Real heroism lies, as it always will, not in conformity or even patriotism, but in acts of solitary moral courage. Which, come to think of it, is what we used to admire in our Christian savior
mistake book writing
Thank heaven, though, one of the few mistakes I haven't made is to talk about the unwritten book.
maturity age democracy
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.
names done dare
The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done - dare I say it - in the name of God,
mean love-means betray
Love means having something to betray.
writing principles stories
It's a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can.