By repetition, each lie becomes an irreversible fact upon which other lies are constructed.

No problem exists in isolation, one must first reduce it to its basic components, then tackle each component in turn.

It was a charming fantasy of romantics that the spies would stop spying, that political conflict would end and politicians would tell the truth. Unfortunately that has not been the case.

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.

Unfortunately it is the weak who destroy the strong.

What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs? They're a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.

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.