Thank heaven, though, one of the few mistakes I haven't made is to talk about the unwritten book.

Unfortunately it is the weak who destroy the strong.

Cheats, liars and criminals may resist every blandishment while respectable gentlemen have been moved to appalling treasons by watery cabbage in a departmental canteen.

I was quite able at the insignificant work I did in MI6, but absolutely dysfunctional in my domestic life. I had no experience of fatherhood. I had no example of marital bliss or the family unit.

[My novels] introduce levels of intelligence ... moral doubt [and] self-doubt, which may not pertain [to real-world espionage].

God is in his Heaven and the first night was a wow.

I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read a book from end to end.