John Le
John Le
war literature shade
During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.
encounters
Life was to be a search, or nothing! But it was the fear that it was nothing that drove me forward. Every encounter was an encounter with myself.
enemy fool looks
After all, if you make your enemy look like a fool, you lose the justification for engaging him.
lonely congratulations home
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
survival infinite capacity
Survival...is an infinite capacity for suspicion.
spy matter habit
Treason is very much a matter of habit, Smiley decided.
not-happy shots
Everyone who is not happy must be shot.
party desert disillusionment
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.
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.
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.
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.