The Cold War was over long before it was officially declared dead.

Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage.

I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

I think bankers will always get away with whatever they can get away with.

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.

When you're my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I'd just like to get a few more novels under my belt.

I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral,' Smiley went on, more lightly. 'Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.