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Quote by John le Carre

“When it's going well [writing] goes terribly fast. It isn't at all surprising to write a chapter in a day, which for me is about twenty-two pages. When it's going badly, it isn't really going badly; it's just the beginning.”

Quote by John le Carre

Author

John le Carre, born David Cornwell, is a renowned British spy novel author. Born in October 1931, he is known for his profound insights into the world of espionage and his delicate portrayal of human nature. Le Carre's works are often set against the backdrop of the British intelligence agencies during the Cold War, revealing the complexity and moral dilemmas of espionage activities. more

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“The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and personal confusion. Fifty years on, I don't associate the book with anything that ever happened to me, save for one wordless encounter at London airport when a worn-out, middle-aged military kind of man in a stained raincoat slammed a handful of mixed foreign change on to the bar and in gritty Irish accents ordered himself as much Scotch as it would buy. In that moment, Alec Leamas was born. Or so my memory, not always a reliable informant, tells me.”

“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.”

Party Needed Ideology Desert Labour Bloody Corpses Detached Disillusionment Spineless

Author:John le Carre

“America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.”

Long I Can War America Remember Term Worst Periods Madness Historical Long Term Vietnam Pigs Vietnam War Mccarthyism Bay Of Pigs

Author:John le Carre

“I don't think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It's essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.”

Thinking Long Different Play Use Reality Form Courses Roles Novel Narrative

Author:Margaret Atwood

“So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience.”

Ifs Knows Hours Morning Audience Seven Hearing Clock Reasonable

Book:act one

Source: act one

“I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.”

Thinking Used Wish Comedy Tragedy Clever

Book:A Murder of Quality

Source: A Murder of Quality

“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.”

Term Enemy Method Odd Hypocrisy Saddam Outrageous Banner Downfall

Author:John le Carre

“My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak. What I see in my country, progressively over these years, is that the rich have got richer, the poor have got poorer. The rich have become indifferent through a philosophy of greed, and the poorer have become hopeless because they're not properly cared for. That's actually something that is happening in many Western societies. Your own, I am told, is not free from it.”

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Author:John le Carre

“There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo.”

One Thing Status Quo

Book:Smiley's People

Source: Smiley's People

“Elections are a Western jerk-off.”

Election Western Jerk

Author:John le Carre