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.

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

I mean, you can't be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government's policy is benevolent, can you now?

When you're my age, you have the feeling sometimes that you're seeing the show come round again.

For decades to come the spy world will continue to be the collective couch where the subconscious of each nation is confessed.

My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak.

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