“Never trade a secret, you'll always get the short end of the bargain.”
John le Carré livre The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
John le Carré: 42 citations0 J'aime
John le Carré: Citations en anglais
“There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo.”
John le Carré livre Smiley's People
Smiley's People (1979)
“If you're in a hole, don't dig, they say.”
John le Carré livre The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
“America has entered one of its periods of historical madness”
"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.
“So odd to think of the Devil as a fumbler!”
John le Carré livre Smiley's People
Smiley's People (1979)
“In the war on terror we did everything wrong that we could have done.”
Radio interview (November 2008)
John le Carré livre Smiley's People
Smiley's People (1979)
“Blackmail is more effective than bribery.”
John le Carré livre Smiley's People
Smiley's People (1979)
John le Carré livre The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
“Nothing in life… even a few broken bones, is without its reward.”
John le Carré livre The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
John le Carré livre Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)
“Luck's just another word for destiny…either you make your own or you're screwed.”
John le Carré livre The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
Radio interview (November 2008)
The Constant Gardener (2001)
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)
