69 Quotes by Len Deighton

There is no sadness to compare with the grief of the young.

I hurt, therefore I am.

You can find everything you want there and a lot of things you’ve been trying to avoid.

In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn’t work very well.

I would still not know that Finland had a cuisine, let alone that Kalakukko, a fish pie incorporating spiky bones and heads, was a cherished part of it. So.

Or was the truth – like so many truths – not any one of the envisaged possibilities?

I think the reason working-class people don’t write books is because they are encouraged to believe that only certain people are permitted to write books.

I’ve been taking things too seriously for years,’ I said. ‘I’m afraid it makes me a difficult man to live with. But I’ve stayed alive, sweetheart. And that means a lot to me.

It doesn’t take much to make the daily round with one’s employer work smoothly. A couple of ‘yessirs’ when you know that ‘not on your life’ is the thing to say. A few expressions of doubt about things you’ve spent your life perfecting. Forgetting to make use of the information that negates his hastily formed but deliciously convenient theories. It doesn’t take much but it takes about 98.5 per cent more than I’ve ever considered giving.