Quotes from A Perfect Spy

John le Carré ·  608 pages

Rating: (13.3K votes)


“Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“You could be the perfect spy. All you need is a cause.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“He was learning to live on several planes at once. The art of it was to forget everything except the ground you stood on and the face you spoke from at that moment.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“A vida tem de ser paga. A vida é fazer-se o que tem de ser feito, mesmo que se morra por causa disso.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“Mas em diplomacia nada é duradouro, nada é absoluto e uma conspiração entre assassinos não é motivo para interromper o fluxo da conversa”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy



“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 Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


“And what am I thinking? I am thinking that a man who cannot speak clearly cannot think clearly.”
― John le Carré, quote from A Perfect Spy


About the author

John le Carré
Born place: in Poole, Dorset, England, The United Kingdom
Born date October 19, 1931
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Popular quotes

“My mother tells me
that when I meet someone I like,
I have to ask them three questions:

1. what are you afraid of?
2. do you like dogs?
3. what do you do when it rains?

of those three, she says the first one is the most important.
“They gotta be scared of something, baby. Everybody is. If they aren’t afraid of anything, then they don’t believe in anything, either.”

I asked you what you were afraid of.

“spiders, mostly. being alone. little children, like, the ones who just learned how to push a kid over on the playground. oh and space. holy shit, space.”

I asked you if you liked dogs.

“I have three.”

I asked you what you do when it rains.

“sleep, mostly. sometimes I sit at the window and watch the rain droplets race. I make a shelter out of plastic in my backyard for all the stray animals; leave them food and a place to sleep.”

he smiled like he knew.
like his mom told him the same
thing.
“how about you?”

me?
I’m scared of everything.
of the hole in the o-zone layer,
of the lady next door who never
smiles at her dog,
and especially of all the secrets
the government must be breaking
it’s back trying to keep from us.
I love dogs so much, you have no idea.
I sleep when it rains.
I want to tell everyone I love them.
I want to find every stray animal and bring them home.
I want to wake up in your hair
and make you shitty coffee
and kiss your neck
and draw silly stick figures of us.
I never want to ask anyone else
these questions
ever again.”
― Caitlyn Siehl, quote from What We Buried


“You've got to show the world who you are before it tells you. Otherwise you become victim to someone you're not.”
― Chris Colfer, quote from Struck by Lightning: The Carson Philips Journal


“Kaji’s ways,” Abban said. “Interpreted by corrupt Damaji to their own ends over the centuries.”
― Peter V. Brett, quote from The Skull Throne


“Yesterday, I was sad, tomorrow i may be sad again, but today i know that i am happy. I want to live on and on, delighting like a pagan in all that is physical; and i know that this one lifetime, however long, cannot satisfy my heart.”
― Ruskin Bond, quote from Delhi Is Not Far


“When confidence becomes a muscle memory, panic is replaced by peak performance.”
― Linda Kaplan Thaler, quote from Grit to Great: How Perseverance, Passion, and Pluck Take You from Ordinary to Extraordinary


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