More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.

Home's where you go when you run out of homes.

All men are born free: just not for long.

[My novels] introduce levels of intelligence ... moral doubt [and] self-doubt, which may not pertain [to real-world espionage].

Cheats, liars and criminals may resist every blandishment while respectable gentlemen have been moved to appalling treasons by watery cabbage in a departmental canteen.

Each my book feels like my last book. And then I think, like a dedicated alcoholic, that one more won't do me any harm.

It's a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can.