I'm really a library man, or second-hand book man.

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

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

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

The only reward for love is the experience of loving.

Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.

I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people.

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

I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

Blackmail is more effective than bribery.

A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music.

I'm listening to my son right now.

Children do not experience our intentions, no matter how heartfelt. They experience what we manifest in tone and behavior.

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.

This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.

I was never trying to write a hit. I was just trying to write good songs and get a message out, and it was my great good fortune to be popular.

Children generally hate to be idle; all the care then is that their busy humour should be constantly employed in something of use to them

People who say that money isn't the most important thing in the world are usually broke.

When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

Sometimes offering support and making yourself available when the child or adolescent is ready to talk can be the most helpful you can be.