Ideologies have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves.

Yet it's not for want of future that I'm here, he thought. It's for want of a present.

The one thing you can bet is that spying is never over. Spying is like the wiring in this building: It's just a question of who takes it over and switches on the lights. It will go on and on and on.

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.

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

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

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