The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London.

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.

I have questioned God sometimes whether prayers have gone unanswered. But answered prayer is still harder to believe.

It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better, [Cloquet thought, ] while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.

I knew from the start we were nothing like "forever". Maybe because forever is such a scary place.

Needless, heedless, wanton and deliberate injury of the sort inflicted by Life's picture story is not an essential instrument of responsible journalism.

The flowers are ravined by bees, the fruit blossoms are thrown to the ground, the wind the rain forces everything.

If you lead the people with correctness, who will dare not be correct?

After doing One Fine Day and playing a pediatrician on ER, I'll never have kids. I'm going to have a vasectomy.

Skibbereen have a hard time at [math]; the best that the smartest of them can do with adding two plus two is guessing: three plus one. Correct, sort of, but not always useful.

It's amazing how low you go to get high.

I enjoyed breaking down my matches, because wrestling fans really like to know what I'm actually thinking, and why certain things needed to happen at a certain time.