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
fake-people lying reality
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.
intelligence-services opposites secret
The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London.
double-standard world standards
Once you've lived the inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it. It's a mentality, a double standard of existence.
fool literature language
Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.
literature century made
More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.
unique mind limits
The good pupils are often brilliant, and they keep you on your toes and take you to the limits of your knowledge. The worst pupils provide a unique insight into the criminal mind.
hands design misery
...in the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery...
morality trouble british
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.
cat compassion spy
I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.
doing-nothing facts littles
The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.
election jerk western
Elections are a Western jerk-off.
firsts isolation problem
No problem exists in isolation, one must first reduce it to its basic components, then tackle each component in turn.
power-corrupts
All power corrupts but some must govern.
wind choices littles
There was nothing dishonourable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one's own generation.