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

The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous.

All power corrupts but some must govern.

I've never been able to write a book without one very strong character in my rucksack.

...also took for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nations political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.

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.

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.