“[Smiley contemplates graffiti:]'Punk is destructive. Society does not need it.' The assertion caused him a moment's indecision. 'Oh, but society does,' he wanted to reply; 'society is an association of minorities.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“In Lacon's world, direct questions were the height of bad taste, but direct answers were worse.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“I have destroyed him with the weapons I abhorred, and they are his. We have crossed each other's frotiers, we are the no-men of this no-man's land.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Why and earth should an unshaven young man in a track suit be carrying a basket of oranges and yesterday's newspaper? The whole boat must of noticed him!”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“George, you won,' said Guillam, as they walked slowly towards the car.
'Did I?' said Smiley. 'Yes. Yes, well I suppose I did.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Walking a short way back along the embankment, almost to where the cross stood, Smiley took another look at the bridge, as if to establish whether anything had changed, but clearly it had not, and though the wind appeared a little stronger, the snow was still swirling in all directions.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“George, this is history," Lacon protested weakly. "This is not today.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“let us honour if we can the vertical man, though we value none but the horizontal one. Or”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“The ground on which you once stood is cut away. You have become a citizen of No Man’s Land. I send you my greetings.
-- the closing lines of Smiley's letter to Karla persuading him to defect.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Some problems—take Ireland—were insoluble, but you would never get the Americans to admit anything was insoluble.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman. Tell him I have two proofs and can bring them with me.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Put it this way, George,” he suggested, when he had savoured the night air for a moment. “You traveling on business, or for pleasure in this thing? Which is it?
Smiley’s reply was also slow in coming, and as indirect: “I was never conscious of pleasure,” he said. “Or perhaps I mean: of the distinction.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“You just happened to put your hand to your face and find it damp and you wondered what the hell Christ bothered to die for, if He ever died at all.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“The café was the last in the street, if not in all Paris, to lack both a juke-box and neon lighting – and to remain open in August – though there were bagatelle tables that bumped and flashed from dawn till night. For the rest, there was the usual mid-morning hubbub, of grand politics, and horses, and whatever else Parisians talked; there was the usual trio of prostitutes murmuring among themselves, and a sullen young waiter in a soiled shirt who led them to a table in a corner that was reserved with a grimy Campari sign. A moment of ludicrous banality followed. The stranger ordered two coffees, but the waiter protested that at midday one does not reserve the best table in the house merely in order to drink coffee; the patron had to pay the rent, monsieur! Since”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Probably she said yes. Afterwards she was not sure. She saw his scared gaze lift and stare at the approaching bus. She saw an indecision near to panic seize him, and it occurred to her – which in the long run was an act of near clairvoyance – that he proposed to push her under it. He didn’t, but he did put his next question in Russian – and in the brutal accents of Moscow officialdom.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“But she did not say it, she kept rigidly silent. Ostrakova had already sworn to herself that she would restrain both her quick temper and her quick tongue, and she now physically enjoined herself to this vow by grabbing a piece of skin on the soft inside of her wrist and pinching it through her sleeve with a fierce, sustained pressure under the table, exactly as she had done a hundred times before, in the old days, when such questionings were part of her daily life – When did you last hear from your husband, Ostrakov, the traitor? Name all persons with whom you have associated in the last three months! With bitter experience she had learned the other lessons of interrogation too. A”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Because he was good!’ Smiley snapped, and there was a startled silence everywhere, while he recovered himself. ‘Vladimir’s father was an Estonian and a passionate Bolshevik, Oliver,’ he resumed in a calmer voice. ‘A professional man, a lawyer. Stalin rewarded his loyalty by murdering him in the purges. Vladimir was born Voldemar but he even changed his name to Vladimir out of allegiance to Moscow and the Revolution. He still wanted to believe, despite what they had done to his father. He joined the Red Army and by God’s grace missed being purged as well. The war promoted him, he fought like a lion, and when it was over, he waited for the great Russian liberalisation that he had been dreaming of, and the freeing of his own people. It never came. Instead, he witnessed the ruthless repression of his homeland by the government he had served. Scores of thousands of his fellow Estonians went to the camps, several of his own relatives among them.’ Lacon opened his mouth to interrupt, but wisely closed it. ‘The lucky ones escaped to Sweden and Germany. We’re talking of a population of a million sober, hard-working people, cut to bits. One night, in despair, he offered us his services. Us, the British. In Moscow. For three years after that he spied for us from the very heart of the capital. Risked everything for us, every day.”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“You don’t buy photographs from Otto Leipzig, you don’t buy Degas from Signor Benati, follow me?” “Do”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Enemies I do not fear, Villem. But friends I fear greatly.’” Smiley”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
“Why are Scots so attracted to the secret world? Smiley wondered, not for the first time in his career. Ships’ engineers, Colonial administrators, spies. . . . Their heretical Scottish history drew them to distant churches, he decided. “George!”
― John le Carré, quote from Smiley's People
John le Carré
Born place: in Poole, Dorset, England, The United Kingdom
Born date October 19, 1931
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― Alison G. Bailey, quote from Present Perfect
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