"I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services."
-John le Carre
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"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
posted in Experience
Other Quotes by John le Carre
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"In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know."
-John le Carre
WarView Quote
"Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage."
-John le Carre
RelationshipView Quote
"The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London."
-John le Carre
IntelligenceView Quote
"It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into intelligence for his masters, whether it's his readership or his spy masters. And I think that both professions are perhaps rather lonely."
-John le Carre
IntelligenceView Quote
"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
HistoryView Quote
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"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards."
-Soren Kierkegaard
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"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."
-Khalil Gibran
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"The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience."
-Emily Dickinson
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"Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print experience is what you get when you don't."
-Pete Seeger
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"Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience."
-Bill Watterson
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"Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession."
-George Washington
ExperienceView Quote