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

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.

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.

A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.

True friendship is self-love at second hand.

Cheerfulness, up to and including delusion and false hope, has a recognized place in medicine.

Delight in the scenery of each day.

we're anything brighter than even the sun

But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.

One learns better than to hand one's choices to fear. With age, with every wound and scar, one learns.

You know, girls in general are scarier than Voldemort.

People who get on at school are the ones who play by the rules, and no one's going to get far in later life playing by the system.

Hitters are too big, too strong, and their bats are too quick. I have to go inside to have success.

All the months are crude experiments, out of which the perfect September is made.