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
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.
dirty mean boys
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.
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.
writing thinking hands
Without a pen in my hand I can't think.
strong book writing
I've never been able to write a book without one very strong character in my rucksack.
bribery blackmail
Blackmail is more effective than bribery.
mean government ruthless
I mean, you can't be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government's policy is benevolent, can you now?