Give a man a car of his own and he leaves humility and common sense behind him in the garage.

Give a man a car of his own and he leaves humility and common sense behind him in the garage.

A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

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.

By the age of 9 or 10, I knew that I had to cut my own cloth and make my own way.

I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making.

There is no such thing as a secure writer: every novel is an impossible mountain.