Quotes by John le Carre

About John le Carre:

David John Moore Cornwell is a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell 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 (1963) became an international best-seller, and it remains one of his best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time author.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.

John le Carre

I don't think it is given to any of us to be impertinent to great religions with impunity.

John le Carre

I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services.

John le Carre

It is my writing dilemma. The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.

John le Carre

I don't think that there are very many good writers who don't live without a sense of tension. If they haven't got one immediately available to them, then they usually manage to manufacture it in their private lives.

John le Carre

The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.

John le Carre

If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.

John le Carre

People who've had very unhappy childhoods are pretty good at inventing themselves. If nobody invents you for yourself, nothing is left but to invent yourself for others.

John le Carre

Well, certainly I don't think that there are very many good writers who don't live without a sense of tension. If they haven't got one immediately available to them, then they usually manage to manufacture it in their private lives.

John le Carre

I don't know the literary world; I was scared of being confronted with famous names, not knowing what they had written. It was occupied territory I was entering.

John le Carre

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...

John le Carre

The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London.

John le Carre

SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, also has no executive powers and operates abroad on CIA lines, but with a tiny percentage of the budget and a tiny percentage of the personnel.

John le Carre

I've had nothing to do with the intelligence world since I left it, in any shade or variety.

John le Carre

We have learned in recent years to translate almost all of political life in terms of conspiracy. And the spy novel, as never before, really, has come into its own.

John le Carre

Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.

John le Carre

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

John le Carre

Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie.

John le Carre

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

John le Carre

The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how our messages will be received.

John le Carre

I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention.

John le Carre

Author Bio

  • NameJohn le Carre
  • DescriptionBritish novelist
  • AliasesDavid John Moore Cornwell
  • BornOctober 19, 1931
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • WorksThe Spy Who Came In From The Cold; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley's People; The Constant Gardener
  • AwardsJames Tait Black Memorial Prize; Edgar Award