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But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state.

John le Carre

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John le Carre
Age: 89 †
Born: 1931
Born: October 19
Died: 2020
Died: December 12
Actor
Film Producer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Spy
Writer
Sweetwater
Texas
David John Moore Cornwell
David Cornwell
John le Carre
Bigs
States
Totalitarian
West
Difference
Differences
Working
State

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In itself, the practice of deception is not particularly exacting it is a matter of experience, of professional expertise, it is a facility most of us can acquire.
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The greatest threat to mankind comes from the renunciation of individual scruple in favor of institutional denominators. . . . Real heroism lies, as it always will, not in conformity or even patriotism, but in acts of solitary moral courage. Which, come to think of it, is what we used to admire in our Christian savior
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I think bankers will always get away with whatever they can get away with.
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If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing.
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The things that are done in the name of the shareholder are, to me, as terrifying as the things that are done - dare I say it - in the name of God.
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The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.
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I don't think it is given to any of us to be impertinent to great religions with impunity.
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When it's going well [writing] goes terribly fast. It isn't at all surprising to write a chapter in a day, which for me is about twenty-two pages. When it's going badly, it isn't really going badly it's just the beginning.
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Home's where you go when you run out of homes.
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The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience, do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents, however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat.
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When you're my age, you have the feeling sometimes that you're seeing the show come round again.
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Survival...is an infinite capacity for suspicion.
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A lot of people see doubt as legitimate philosophical posture. They think of themselves in the middle, whereas of course really, they're nowhere.
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When a problem threatens to engulf you, there's nothing like irrelevant detail to keep your head above water.
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I mean, you can't be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government's policy is benevolent, can you now?
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A dead man is the worst enemy alive, I thought. You can't alter his power over you. You can't alter what you love or owe. And it's too late to ask him for his absolution. He has beaten you all ways.
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Remember Graham Green's dictum that childhood is the bank balance of the writer? I think that all writers feel alienated. Most of us go back to an alienated childhood in some way or another. I know that I do.
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I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.
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There is a big difference between fighting the cold war and fighting radical Islam. The rules have changed and we haven't.
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