Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (novel) Quotes

“John le Carré”

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (film)”

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV miniseries)”

““His real name is Bill,” Roach heard Jim explain to a visiting parent. “We were new boys together.””

““George, you been talking to the wrong guys.”
“One of us has,” Smiley agreed pleasantly. “That's for sure.””

“Patiently Smiley waited for the speck of gold, for Connie was of an age where the only thing a man could give her was time.”

“Sometimes as Tarr spoke an extraordinary stillness came over his body as if he were hearing his own voice played back to him.”

““All power corrupts but some must govern and in that case Brother Lacon will reluctantly scramble to the top of the heap.””

““Aleksey Aleksandrovich Polyakov was a six-cylinder Karla-trained hood if ever I saw one, and they wouldn't even listen to me!””

“Wikipedia: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (novel)”

“Smiley thought: Yes, with Ricki Tarr it could have happened. With Tarr, anything could have happened…In Brixton, they used to call him accident-prone.”

“Haydon also took it for granted that secret services were the only real measure of a nation's political health, the only real expression of its subconscious.”

““I'm surprised they didn't throw you out with the rest of us,” Smiley said, not very pleasantly. “You had all the qualifications: good at your work, loyal, discreet.””

“"I even put it to Control: we should take the opposition's cover stories more seriously, I said. The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal."”

““Are you enjoying retirement, George?” Lacon asked, as if blurting into the ear trumpet of a deaf aunt. “You don't miss the warmth of human contact? I rather would, I think.“”

““George is like a swift,” Ann had once told Haydon in his hearing. “He cuts down his body temperature till it's the same as the environment. Then he doesn't lose energy adjusting.””

““I want to put a thesis to you, Toby. A notion about what's going on. May I?...You don't have to speak at all,” Smiley said. “There's no risk to listening, is there?”
“Maybe.””

“Is the Witchcraft committee led from below? From the middle or from the top? I rather like Karla's description of committees don't you? Is it Chinese? A committee is an animal with four back legs.”

““Why's it all so hot? What sort of plant can he be when we don't believe a word he says?”
Alleline seemed to be torn between giving a satisfactory but indiscreet answer, or making a fool of himself.”

“On the way he became even more irritable and, from a callbox, sought an appointment with his solicitor for that afternoon.
“George, how can you be so vulgar? Nobody divorces Ann. Send her flowers and come to lunch.””