“I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services.”

“I think, increasingly, despite what we are being told is an ever more open world of communication, there is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secre...”

“I don't know the literary world; I was scared of being confronted with famous names, not knowing what they had written. It was occupied territory I was entering.”

“If you're growing up in a chaotic world without reason, your instinct is to become a performer and control the circumstances around you. You lead from weakness into strength; you have an undefended...”

“The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London.”

“It's part of a writer's profession, as it's part of a spy's profession, to prey on the community to which he's attached, to take away information - often in secret - and to translate that into inte...”

“Remember that yours is not the only heart that may be wishing for love.”

“God does watch over us and does notice us, but it usually through someone else that he meets our needs.”

“Perhaps when we face our maker, we will not be asked, 'How many positions did you hold,' but rather, 'How many people did you help?”

“We didn't actually overspend our budget. The allocation simply fell short of our expenditure.”

“If you don't have any good idea, you are likely to waste money if it's given to you! If you don't have an idea, you can't even know how much money you need... This is because; it's your ideas that ...”

“Without vision, a church devolves into a lukewarm, aimless organization characterized by infighting, budget grabbing and a dead heart for the lost.”

“How can I tell anyone that there has always lived within me a rusty sense of disgust-a dull, brackish water that I suspect is my soul?”

“I'll tell you a secret.Old storytellers never die.They disappear into their own story.”

“A secret note is secret. There is no reason to sign it.”