348 Quotes by John le Carré

To give the best of the day to your work is most important.

We lie to one another every day, in the sweetest way, often unconsciously. We dress ourselves and compose ourselves in order to present ourselves to one another.

When you are brought up as a frozen child, you go on freezing. It wasn't until I had my four sons, who have brought me immense joy, that I began to thaw. That I realised how utterly extraordinary my childhood was.

In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know.

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

Writers are two-home men - they want a place outside and a place within.

Totalitarian states killed with impunity and no one was held accountable. That didn't happen in the West.

I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making.