Writing is like walking in a deserted street. Out of the dust in the street you make a mud pie.

No problem exists in isolation, one must first reduce it to its basic components, then tackle each component in turn.

Power expands through the distribution of secrecy.

Treason is very much a matter of habit, Smiley decided.

You can't make war against terror. Terror is a technique of battle. It's a tactic that has been employed since time immemorial. You can conduct clandestine action against terrorists, and that must be done.

It's a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can.

And the ideologies trailed after these impossible events like condemned prisoners, as ideologies do when they've had their day. Because they have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves.