John le Carre
British writer of spy novels, and a former spy himself.
A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.
Nothing in life... even a few broken bones, is without its reward.
Blackmail is more effective than bribery.
On one hand we go like hell for every terror cell we can find, we penetrate it, we destroy it. On the other hand, there is a much bigger need for a political solution.
Every writer wants to be believed. But every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.
"This is a war," Leamas replied. "It's graphic and unpleasant because it's fought on a tiny scale, at close range; fought with a wastage of innocent life sometimes, I admit. But it's nothing, nothing at all beside other wars – the last or the next."
He worked for the fleshy side of the Foreign Office and his job consisted of lunching visiting dignitaries whom no one else would have entertained in his woodshed.
The friends of my friends are my friends.
To operate an intelligence network against the Islamist terror is terribly difficult because they don't have a central command and control center such as we would understand. Therefore you cannot penetrate at the top and find out what will happen on the ground.
There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo.
So odd to think of the Devil as a fumbler!