Smiley's People Quotes

“Smiley's People (TV miniseries)”

“Wikipedia: Smiley's People”

“Toby had a lifelong faith in mail vans; stole them wherever he went, saying nobody noticed or remembered them.”

“The Superintendent called softly to the trees, where his men stood among their blacked-out cars like a next generation waiting for its turn.”

“"The Grigorievs left the house in Elfenau five minutes ago," he said quietly. "Grigorieva's driving. Most likely they die before they get here."”

“"It wasn't suicide, Toby," Smiley said, still without a glance at him. "It definitely wasn't suicide. I saw the body, believe me. It wasn't a jealous husband either - not unless he was equipped with a Moscow Centre murder weapon."”

“On Karla has descended the curse of Smiley's compassion; on Smiley the curse of Karla's fanaticism. I have destroyed him with the weapons I abhorred, and they are his. We have crossed each other's frontiers, we are the no-men of this no-man's-land.”

“The room had the atmosphere of a sleazy boudoir, with a chaise lounge and a pink hand-basin in one corner.
"So how's trade, Toby?" Smiley asked.
Toby Esterhase had a special smile for that question and a special way of tilting his little palm.”

“"Meanwhile, you have my totally deniable blessing," said Enderby as they started back towards the house.
"Thank you," said Smiley again.
"Sorry you've become an instrument of the imperial hypocrisy, but there's rather a lot of it about."
"Not at all," said Smiley.”

“The two men had been together for fifteen minutes but this was the Superintendent's first question. For a while Smiley did not seem to hear it, but his silence was not offensive, he had the gift of quiet. Besides, there is a companionship about two men contemplating a corpse.”

“Two seemingly unconnected events heralded the summons of Mr. George Smiley from his dubious retirement. The first had for its background Paris, and for a season the boiling month of August, when Parisians by tradition abandon their city to the scalding sunshine and the busloads of packaged tourists.”

“Returning, Smiley approached the pavilion through the trees...earnest moral statements enlivened the flaking green paint. "Punk is destructive. Society does not need it." The assertion caused him a moment's indecision. "Oh, but society does," he wanted to reply; "society is an association of minorities."”

“"Oliver, I wonder if you'd mind finally telling me what I'm doing here," Smiley heard himself suggesting for the third time, hardly above a murmur.
Even then, Lacon dithered, pondered, hunted with his eyes, delayed. In Lacon's world, direct questions were the height of bad taste, but direct answers were worse.”

“"Because Karla already had his man in Paris, darling," she explained patiently. "As you are very well aware. That old stickler Pudin, the assistant military attaché. You remember how Karla always loved a soldier. Still does, for all I know."”

“The cab came, and to Smiley's embarrassment Oliver Lacon insisted on shaking hands. "George. Bless you. You've been a brick. We're birds of a feather, George. Both patriots, givers, not takers. Trained to our services. Our country. We must pay the price. If Ann had been your agent instead of your wife, you'd probably have run her pretty well."”

“"Balls, the lot of it. It's death, that's what I'm suffering from. The systematic encroachment of the big D. Is that booze you're toting in that bag?"
"Yes. Yes, it is," said Smiley.
"Goody. Let's have lots. How's the demon Ann?"
On the draining-board, amid a permanent pile of washing-up, he found two glasses, and half filled them.
"Flourishing, I gather," he replied.”

“"So what's your name, George? Sherlock Holmes dogging his poor old Moriarty? Captain Ahab chasing his big white whale? Who are you?"
Smiley did not reply.
"Wish I had an enemy, I must say," Enderby remarked, turning a few pages. "Been looking for one for donkey's years. Haven't I, Sam?"
"Night and day, Chief," Sam Collins agreed heartily, and sent his master a confiding grin.”

“It's like putting all your money on black, thought Guillam, staring out of the window of the café: everything you've got in the world, your wife, your unborn child. Then waiting, hour by hour, for the croupier to spin the wheel.
He had known Berlin when it was the world capital of the Cold War, when every crossing point from East to West had the tenseness of a major surgical operation.”

“To his landlady, Mrs. Gray, Smiley was, quite simply, bereaved. She knew nothing of him as a man, except that his name was Lorimer and he was a retired librarian by trade. But she told her other gentlemen she could feel he had had a loss, which was why he left his bacon, why he went out a lot but always alone, and why he slept with his light on. He reminded her of her father, she said, "after Mother went."”

“The drawing-pin was where Mostyn said it was, at head height exactly, in the best Sarratt tradition of regularity, its Circus-issue brass head as new and as unmarked as the boy who had put it there.
Proceed to the rendezvous, it said, no danger sighted.
Moscow Rules, thought Smiley yet again. Moscow, where it could take a fieldman three days to post a letter to a safe address. Moscow, where all minorities are punk.”