John le Carré citations

Smiley's People (1979)

The Mission Song (2006)

"The United States of America Has Gone Mad" (2003)
Contexte: 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.

As quoted in "Master of the Secret World: John le Carré on Deception, Storytelling and American Hubris" by Andrew Ross, in Salon (21 October 1996); also in Conversations with John le Carré (2004) edited by Matthew Joseph Bruccoli and Judith Baughman, p. 141
Contexte: I use the furniture of espionage to amuse the reader, to make the reader listen to me, because most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage. I think what gives my works whatever universality they have is that they use the metaphysical secret world to describe some realities of the overt world.

Radio interview (November 2008)

Radio interview (November 2008)

Smiley's People (1979)

Radio interview (November 2008)

Smiley's People (1979)

Smiley's People (1979)

The Mission Song (2006)

Radio interview (November 2008)

The Mission Song (2006)

Radio interview (November 2008)

Related articles

The Mission Song (2006)

The Mission Song (2006)

The Mission Song (2006)

Related articles

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)

The Mission Song (2006)

Radio interview (November 2008)

The Mission Song (2006)

Radio interview (November 2008)

The Constant Gardener (2001)

Radio interview (November 2008)

Smiley's People (1979)

As quoted in "Master of the Secret World: John le Carré on Deception, Storytelling and American Hubris" by Andrew Ross, in Salon (21 October 1996); also in Conversations with John le Carré (2004) edited by Matthew Joseph Bruccoli and Judith Baughman, p. 140

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)