But I think the real tension lies in the relationship between what you might call the pursuer and his quarry, whether it's the writer or the spy.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

There is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.

Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.

I'm really a library man, or second-hand book man.

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

Gerald Westerby, he told himself. You were present at your birth. You were present at your several marriages and at some of your divorces, and you will certainly be present at your funeral. High time, in our considered view, that you were present at certain other crucial moments in your history.