In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job.

It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

The only reward for love is the experience of loving.

Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.

I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people.

The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.

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

Blackmail is more effective than bribery.

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

Principal Totty was one of those people who frown while they’re speaking, and then smile at the end of each sentence. It was weird. It was like there were two different people inside her brain.

The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more.

The best way for you to get that new experience is to change your response to what happens.

Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic.

The clear, unmistakable sign of a bureaucrat is somebody who worries about whether he has a window.

Sometimes when she was alone, and she knew she was alone, she permitted her mind to play in a garden, and she smiled.

The hardest part of growing up is learning how to wait

A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.

Crossing barriers can be as simple as a smile.

Am I really gonna deny someone the opportunity of a lifetime just because they met me 5 easters early?