John le Carre
John le Carre
David John Moore Cornwellis a British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, he worked for the Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service, and began writing novels under a pen name. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, became an international best-seller, and remains one of his best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time author...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth19 October 1931
childhood monsters detachment
The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous
writing cat stories
The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.
unhappy-childhood people literature
People who've had very unhappy childhoods are pretty good at inventing themselves. If nobody invents you for yourself, nothing is left but to invent yourself for others.
should-have eight solitude
It struck him as a bit unfair that, at the age of eight, he should have manifested the same sense of solitude that haunted him at forty-three.
status-quo one-thing
There's one thing worse than change and that's the status quo.
sacrifice men soul
A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.
thinking people creative
I think that all writers feel alienated. ... I know that I do. ... I still feel, as I think most creative people do, absolutely isolated.
who-we-are
Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.
cat writing watches
A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger.
love betrayal betrayed
Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.
spy literature population
A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.
clever thinking tragedy
I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.
dozen doing-nothing reason
If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.
love dream rewards
The only reward for love is the experience of loving.