I'm Really A Library Man, Or Second-hand

Agents Of Disruption, Subversion, Sabotage And Disinformation Tunnelers And Smugglers, Listeners And Forgers, Trainers And Recruiters And Talent Spotters And Couriers And Watchers And Seducers, Assassins And Balloonists, Lip Readers And Disguise Artists.

It Struck Him As A Bit Unfair That, At The Age Of Eight, He Should Have Manifested The Same Sense Of Solitude That Haunted Him At Forty-three.

George Smiley: [quoting An Old Letter From Bill Haydon About Jim Prideaux] He Has That Heavy Quiet That Commands. He's My Other Half. Between Us We'd Make One Marvelous Man. He Asks Nothing Better Than To Be In My Company Or That Of My Wicked, Divine Friends, And I'm Vastly Tickled By The Compliment. He's Virgin, About Eight Foot Tall, And Built By The Same Firm That Did Stonehenge

I Am Still Making Order Out Of Chaos By Reinvention.

[my Novels] Introduce Levels Of Intelligence ... Moral Doubt [and] Self-doubt, Which May Not Pertain [to Real-world Espionage].