It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?

Wives?" she asked, interrupting him. For a moment, he had assumed she was tuning to the novel. Then he saw her waiting, suspicious eyes, so he replied cautiously, "None active," as if wives were volcanoes.

The good pupils are often brilliant, and they keep you on your toes and take you to the limits of your knowledge. The worst pupils provide a unique insight into the criminal mind.

The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.

Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

You should have died when I killed you.