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

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If there's no sea-gull there's no meeting, Wicklow had said. No sea-gull means abort. That's my epitaph, thought Barley. 'There was no sea-gull, so he...more

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Afterwards Smiley always thought of that interview as a fan dance; a calculated progression of disclosures, each revealing different parts of a myster...more

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Do you know what love is? I'll tell you: it is whatever you can still betray.

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There's no way out," he announced with satisfaction, "and no amount of wishful dreaming will produce one. The demon won't go back in its bottle, the f...more

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Some men will never be heroes, some heroes will never be men, he thought, with urgent acknowledgements to Joseph Conrad.

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Haydon had found his charm again. He could do that at the drop of a hat. He drew you and he repelled you. I remember that exactly. He danced all ways ...more

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A man who lives a part, not to others but alone, is exposed to obvious psychological dangers. In itself the practice of deception is not particularly ...more

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This is a war," Lemas replied. "It's graphic and unpleasant because it's fought on a tiny scale, at close range; fought with a wastage of innocent lif...more

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Don't give it to them all at once, make them work for it. Confuse them with detail, leave things out, go back on your tracks. Be testy, be cussed, be ...more

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We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but we aren't like that really, ...more