The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.

Let's die of it before we're too old.

There are moments which are made up of too much stuff for them to be lived at the time they occur.

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

But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state.

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

Smiley was soaked to the skin and God as a punishment had removed all taxis from the face of London.