348 Quotes by John le Carré

I think that all writers feel alienated. ... I know that I do. ... I still feel, as I think most creative people do, absolutely isolated.

But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state.

Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.

Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.

A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger.

The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how our messages will be received.

I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.

If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.