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

There will be no war, but in the pursuit of principle no stone will be left standing.

The cold war provided the perfect excuse for Western governments to plunder and exploit the Third World in the name of freedom; to rig its elections, bribe its politicians, appoint its tyrants and, by every sophisticated means of persuasion and interference, stunt the emergence of young democracies in the name of democracy.

A good writer can watch a cat pad across the street and know what it is to be pounced upon by a Bengal tiger.

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.

Survival...is an infinite capacity for suspicion.

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