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" I began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name. "
John le Carre
Service
You
Writing
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" Totalitarian states killed with impunity and no one was held accountable. That didn't happen in the West. "
John le Carre
Totalitarian
Accountable
West
" If you're growing up in a chaotic world without reason, your instinct is to become a performer and control the circumstances around you. You lead from weakness into strength; you have an undefended back. "
John le Carre
World
Control
Growing Up
" During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity. "
John le Carre
Cold War
Cold
Grey
" I taught principally German language and literature at Eton. But any master with private pupils must be prepared to teach anything they ask for. That can be as diverse as the early paintings of Salvador Dali or how bumblebees manage to fly. "
John le Carre
Early
Fly
Language
" Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie. "
John le Carre
Writing
Mud
Pie
" There was an ITV television production of the second novel I wrote, called 'Murder of Quality.' It was a little murder story set in a public school - I'd once taught at Eton, and I used that stuff. "
John le Carre
Story
Used
Quality
" History keeps her secrets longer than most of us. But she has one secret that I will reveal to you tonight in the greatest confidence. Sometimes there are no winners at all. And sometimes nobody needs to lose. "
John le Carre
Her
Confidence
She
" There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction. "
John le Carre
Only
Subjects
Tackled
" Remember Graham Green's dictum that childhood is the bank balance of the writer? I think that all writers feel alienated. Most of us go back to an alienated childhood in some way or another. I know that I do. "
John le Carre
Think
Know
Childhood
" The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience, do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents, however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat. "
John le Carre
Experience
Childhood
Parents
" When you're my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I'd just like to get a few more novels under my belt. "
John le Carre
Better
Age
Go For It
" I don't think it is given to any of us to be impertinent to great religions with impunity. "
John le Carre
Us
Think
Religions
" I think that where I've watched a movie go wrong, it's usually because the dread committee has been interfering with it. "
John le Carre
Think
Wrong
Go
" To give the best of the day to your work is most important. "
John le Carre
Day
Work
Important
" Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic. "
John le Carre
Fiction
Than
Rather
" I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making. "
John le Carre
Message
Mean
Business
" I suffer from the same frustration that every decent American suffers from. That is, that you begin to wonder whether decent liberal instincts, decent humanitarian instincts, can actually penetrate the right-wing voice, get through the steering of American opinion by the mass media. "
John le Carre
Media
American
Frustration
" The merit of 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,' then - or its offence, depending where you stood - was not that it was authentic, but that it was credible. "
John le Carre
Credible
Spy
Where
" We have learned in recent years to translate almost all of political life in terms of conspiracy. And the spy novel, as never before, really, has come into its own. "
John le Carre
Never
Political
Conspiracy
" In the last 15 or 20 years, I've watched the British press simply go to hell. There seems to be no limit, no depths to which the tabloids won't sink. I don't know who these people are but they're little pigs. "
John le Carre
Hell
Last
Limit
" Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes. "
John le Carre
Your
Book
Movie
" If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level. "
John le Carre
You
Feel
Wish
" I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention. "
John le Carre
Chaos
I Am
Out
" Thank heaven, though, one of the few mistakes I haven't made is to talk about the unwritten book. "
John le Carre
Talk
Mistakes
Book
" I remain terrified of the capacity of the media, the capacity of spin doctors, here and abroad, particularly the United States media, to perpetuate false lies, perpetuate lies. "
John le Carre
Lies
Media
United States
" Writers are two-home men - they want a place outside and a place within. "
John le Carre
Men
Within
Want
" Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it. "
John le Carre
Something
Know
Should
" I've had nothing to do with the intelligence world since I left it, in any shade or variety. "
John le Carre
Had
Shade
Nothing
" The creation of George Smiley, the retired spy recalled to hunt for just such a high-ranking mole in 'Tinker, Tailor,' was extremely personal. I borrowed elements of people I admired and invested them in this mythical character. I'm such a fluent, specious person now, but I was an extremely awkward fellow in those days. "
John le Carre
Character
Person
People
" Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love. "
John le Carre
Love Is
Betrayal
Happen