To possess another language is to possess another soul.

Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.

I've got more than one string to my bow, and I thought I'd give this one a twang.

I was quite able at the insignificant work I did in MI6, but absolutely dysfunctional in my domestic life. I had no experience of fatherhood. I had no example of marital bliss or the family unit.

A good writer is an expert on nothing except himself. And on that subject, if he is wise, he holds his tongue.

A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

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