'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and personal confusion.

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.

The best way to Prove your critics wrong is to Improve yourself

God isn't looking for perfect people. He is looking to perfect people.

Do you believe in Jesus?Jesse looks at me so brown-eyed it hurts.He nods."I do, " he says.I sit up."I think you look like him.

There’s a big difference, I discovered, between wanting to die and not wanting to live. When you want to die, you at least have a goal. When you don’t want to live, you’re really just empty.

Those who fail to understand mystery are doomed to crack it

There are more blessings in the book of your destiny than your negative thoughts and beliefs are suggesting.

how the French can talk. About a stew, about a fly on the parapet, about death, about anything.

We are distracted from our greatness because are greatness is what scares us. Right where you are…God is.

If I want a long, boring story with no point to it, I have my life.

The people who truly know me know what I'm like. There have been people who try to say things that aren't fair, and I check them. And then they don't like me because I checked them.