A good man knows when to sacrifice himself, a bad man survives but loses his soul.

There is a big difference between fighting the cold war and fighting radical Islam. The rules have changed and we haven't.

Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.... There's a feeling of relief and satisfaction when you get to the end. A feeling that you have brought your family, your characters, home. Then a sort of post-natal depression and then, very quickly, the horizon of a new book. The consolation that next time I will do it better.

For better or worse, I've been involved in the description of political conflict.

The trouble is, when professional spies go out of their way to make a definitive statement about one of their own, the public tends to believe the opposite: which puts us all back where we started.

If you see the world as gloomily as I see it, the only thing to do is laugh or shoot yourself.

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