Top 15 John le Carré Quotes

A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.

Home's where you go when you run out of homes.

The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal.

Do you know what love is? I'll tell you: it is whatever you can still betray.

Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.

Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.

There are moments which are made up of too much stuff for them to be lived at the time they occur.

The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous

By repetition, each lie becomes an irreversible fact upon which other lies are constructed.

The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.

I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.

Survival...is an infinite capacity for suspicion.

It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?

Our power knows no limits, yet we cannot find food for a starving child, or a home for a refugee. Our knowledge is without measure and we build the weapons that will destroy us. We live on the edge of ourselves, terrified of the darkness within. We have harmed, corrupted and ruined, we have made mistakes and deceived.