By the age of 9 or 10, I knew that I had to cut my own cloth and make my own way.
From John le Carre
I'm really a library man, or second-hand book man.
I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read a book from end to end.
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.
You should have died when I killed you.
I think that where I've watched a movie go wrong, it's usually because the dread committee has been interfering with it.
There are some subjects that can only be tackled in fiction.
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.
I think I'm in the same mood as ever, but in some ways more mature. I guess you could say that, at 65, when you've seen the world shape up as I have, there are only two things you can do: laugh or kill yourself.
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.
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