The Best Le Carre quotes

I happen to write by hand. I don’t even type. — John Le Carre

Without a pen in my hand I can’t think. — John Le Carre

I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people. — John Le Carre

On one hand we go like hell for every terror cell we can find, we penetrate it, we destroy it. On the other hand, there is a much bigger need for a political solution. — John Le Carre

In the hands of politicians grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery. — John Le Carre

Thank heaven, though, one of the few mistakes I haven’t made is to talk about the unwritten book. — John Le Carre

Completing a book, it’s a little like having a baby. — John Le Carre

I’ve never been able to write a book without one very strong character in my rucksack. — John Le Carre

I’m really a library man, or second–hand book man. — John Le Carre

Each my book feels like my last book. And then I think, like a dedicated alcoholic, that one more won’t do me any harm. — John Le Carre

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes. — John Le Carre

In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job. — John Le Carre

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world. — John Le Carre

For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed. — John Le Carre

If you see the world as gloomily as I see it, the only thing to do is laugh or shoot yourself. — John Le Carre

Once you’ve lived the inside–out world of espionage, you never shed it. It’s a mentality, a double standard of existence. — John Le Carre

When the world is destroyed, it will be destroyed not by its madmen but by the sanity of its experts and the superior ignorance of its bureaucrats. — John Le Carre

My novels] introduce levels of intelligence … moral doubt [and] self–doubt, which may not pertain [to real–world espionage]. — John Le Carre

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. — John Le Carre

It’s a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can. — John Le Carre

When you’re my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I’d just like to get a few more novels under my belt. — John Le Carre

The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story. — 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

There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction. — John Le Carre

Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic. — John Le Carre

I think that all writers feel alienated. … I know that I do. … I still feel, as I think most creative people do, absolutely isolated. — John Le Carre

There is no such thing as a secure writer: every novel is an impossible mountain. — John Le Carre

A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger. — John Le Carre

Remember Graham Green’s dictum that childhood is the bank balance of the writer? I think that all writers feel alienated. Most of us go back to an alienated childhood in some way or another. I know that I do. — John Le Carre

A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it. — John Le Carre

But I think the real tension lies in the relationship between what you might call the pursuer and his quarry, whether it’s the writer or the spy. — John Le Carre

A good writer is an expert on nothing except himself. And on that subject, if he is wise, he holds his tongue. — John Le Carre