The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how our messages will be received.

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.

Your voice is so mellifluous that I can listen to you forever.

How come you're so different, I asked once, as we sat in the shade of the pine tree. Yukiko's answer, a sentence learned by heart: Because I fell from a star.

I have built, deep in my heart, a chapel filled with you.

The successful man is he who when he sees that no further certainty is attainable promptly decides on the most probable side as if he were completely sure it was right.

Beans, beans, the magic legumes - the more you ingest, the more you consume.

I know for a fact the reason I'm an actor is because one, two, maybe three people when I was younger saw something that I did, in youth theater or some small play somewhere, and said, "You're good."

A belief may be comforting. Only through your own experience, however, does it become liberating.

I'm not impressed by your performance.

Kindness is better and can be more powerful than force. Kind words may unlock an iron door.

I have no shortage of material or offers, it's just a case of what you select to do. But I think it's realistic that my chances of playing Romeo are now over.