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

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.

Dedicandote estos versos, una pulsera vieja, con tu nombre al reverso.I dedicate these verses, an old bracelet with your name on the back.

Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.

I wanted to make a film that gave the people who took LSD at that time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating.

So I was still guilty. And if I was not guilty because one cannot be guilty of betraying a criminal, then I was guilty of having loved a criminal.

The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.

My wife is possessive and I like that

This is a fantasy fiddle tune. The part you fantasize is the fiddle.

Being unprepared makes me nervous. I'm old-fashioned show folk.

All I really need is my bed and my art around me.

Those who behave in ways that displease you are sending out their disharmony toward you because that is what they have to give away. Hating them is akin to hating moss for growing on a tree.