Quotessence
Home / Authors / John le Carre
John le Carre

John le Carre Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllLiteratureThinkingWritingSpyWorldBookKnowsPeopleWarIfsMenLittlesPoliticalSecretWayColdAgeCold WarEndsEnemy

Famous John le Carre Quotes

“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.”

ThinkingKnowsShouldMeanPersonsBookSelfCharacterRunningAgeForceStuffProcessGenerationsMysteryOneselfLoyaltyRidiculousDefinedTensionPeculiarFlawedSelf EducationBrits
Author:John le Carre
Create image

“Look... we're getting to be old men, and we've spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another's systems. I can see through Eastern values just as you can see through our Western ones. Both of us, I am sure, have experienced ad nauseam the technical satisfactions of this wretched war. But now your own side is going to shoot you. Don't you think it's time to recognise that there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?”

ThinkingMenLooksLittlesI CanWarValuesSidesOur LivesMinesWeaknessWesternSatisfactionOld ManAdsEasternWretchedRecogniseYour Side
Author:John le Carre
Create image

“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”

ThinkingRealChristianUsedLyingIndividualMoralMankindThreatFavorsAdmireConformitySaviorHeroismSolitaryRenunciationMoral CourageScruples
Author:John le Carre
Create image

“Most of us live in a condition of secrecy: secret desires, secret appetites, secret hatreds and relationship with the institutions which is extremely intense and uncomfortable. These are, to me, a part of the ordinary human condition. So I don't think I'm writing about abnormal things. ... Artists, in my experience, have very little center. They fake. They are not the real thing. They are spies. I am no exception.”

ThinkingWritingHumansLittlesRealDesireArtistSecretConditionsOrdinaryHatredInstitutionsIntenseUncomfortableFakeExceptionAppetiteHuman ConditionSpySecrecyReal ThingsAbnormalSecret Desire
Author:John le Carre
Create image