John Le
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John Le
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
spy
It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?
lonely vanity people
It is also the pardonable vanity of lonely people everywhere to assume that they have no counterparts.
humility men giving
Give a man a car of his own and he leaves humility and common sense behind him in the garage.
loyalty running book
I think that most of my books are part of some process of self-education, often about the places I go to. Most of all, they are about the peculiar tension between institutional loyalty and loyalty to oneself; the mystery of patriotism, for a Brit of my age and generation, where it runs, how it should be defined, what it's worth and what a corrupting force it can be when misapplied. All that stuff is just in me and it comes out in the characters. I don't mean to preach, but I know I do, and I'm a very flawed person. It's quite ridiculous.
lonely writing thinking
It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters, whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely.