Len Deighton > Quotes

“Do you ever make silly mistakes? It is one of my very few creative activities.”
― Len Deighton

“Perhaps all fear is worse than reality, just as all hope is better than fulfilment.”
― Len Deighton, Berlin Game

“When they ask me to become president of the United States I'm going to say, "Except for Washington D.C.”
― Len Deighton, Spy Hook

“What Douglas had once seen as the attractive over-confidence of youth, now looked more like unyielding selfishness.”
― Len Deighton

“Here in Prague they say that although the traffic police are communists the drivers are fascists, which would be all right if it were not that the pedestrians are anarchists.”
― Len Deighton, Funeral in Berlin

“Perhaps hell is like that; a discordant confusion of anxious souls. Some argued, some slept, some shouted, some wept, some wrote, some sketched and many conspired about their coming interrogation. But mostly they did no more than stare into space, eyes unfocused as they tried to see tomorrow.”
― Len Deighton, SS-GB

“He trades on emotions, not facts.”
― Len Deighton, Winter: A Berlin Family, 1899-1945

“Why do these people love you, Archer? Is it simply because you show little or no response to their affection?”
― Len Deighton, SS-GB

“Neither was this the ordinary world of supply and demand; it was a world of abundance.”
― Len Deighton, Spy Line

“He had a long thin nose, a moustache like flock wallpaper, sparse, carefully combed hair, and the complexion of a Hovis loaf.”
― Len Deighton, The Ipcress File

“Communist," he repeated. "You may have heard someone in a concentration admit to being a murderer and many agreed that they had been spies. A prisoner would sometimes even confess to having at one time - for a short while - been a Jew. But a communist, no. No one would ever let that word pass their lips.”
― Len Deighton, Funeral in Berlin

“Rich young troublemakers. The western world is full of such people.”
― Len Deighton, XPD

“They say the mustard manufacturers get rich from the dabs of mustard people leave on their plates. And we’ll get rich in the same way, darling. From selling the soldiers weapons they’ll never use.”
― Len Deighton, Winter: A Berlin Family, 1899-1945

“Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Yes? Well socialism is exactly the reverse.”
― Len Deighton, The Harry Palmer Quartet

“Tessa was sincere but shallow; she was loving but mercurial; she was an exhibitionist without enough confidence to be an actor. While Fiona displayed all the characteristics of elder children: stability, confidence, intellect in abundance, and that cold reserve with which to judge all the shortcomings of the world.”
― Len Deighton, Berlin Game

“Yes, of course. A matter of principle, was it? I’ve always said that matters of principle are the very last things that should provoke a man to seeking recourse in the law courts. The same might well be said of the recourse to violence.”
― Len Deighton, XPD

“Peter was like that: he had the capacity for cruelty that comes so easily to the self-righteous.”
― Len Deighton, Winter: A Berlin Family, 1899-1945

“He remembered the PM saying that every Russian is at heart a chess-player, and every American at heart a public-relations man. Well, Bret Rensselaer’s zeal did nothing to disprove that one. The sheer audacity of the scheme plus Bret’s enthusiasm was enough to persuade him that it was worth a try. Bret nodded to acknowledge the compliment.”
― Len Deighton, Spy Sinker

“It doesn’t take much to make the daily round with one’s employer work smoothly. A couple of ‘yessirs’ when you know that ‘not on your life’ is the thing to say. A few expressions of doubt about things you’ve spent your life perfecting. Forgetting to make use of the information that negates his hastily formed but deliciously convenient theories. It doesn’t take much but it takes about 98.5 per cent more than I’ve ever considered giving”
― Len Deighton

“That was one of the problems of marrying into wealth; there were no luxuries.”
― Len Deighton, Berlin Game

“Pike began writing.”
― Len Deighton, Billion-Dollar Brain

“You must imagine,
English, that there are two mighty armies advancing towards each other across a vast
desolate place. They have no orders, nor does either suspect that the other is there. You
understand how armies move: one man a long way out in front has a pair of binoculars, a
sub-machine-gun and a radiation counter. Behind him comes the armour and I hen the
motors and the medicine-men and finally dentists and the generals and the caviare. So the
very first fingertips of those armies will be two, not very clever, men who when they
meet will have to decide, very quickly, whether to extend a hand or pull a trigger.
According to what they do, either the armies will that night share an encampment,
exchange stories and vodka, dance and tell lies; or those armies will be tearing each other
to shreds in the most efficient way that man can devise. We are the fingertips,”
― Len Deighton, Billion Dollar Brain

“When the end is lawful the means are also lawful,”
― Len Deighton, The Harry Palmer Quartet

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
― Len Deighton, Faith

“Doesn’t he know that all the world’s governments tell lies all day every day, and show no sign of contrition even when they are caught out in such untruths?”
― Len Deighton, XPD

“Did you ever say hello to a girl you almost married long ago? Did she smile the same captivating smile, and give your arm a hug in a gesture you’d almost forgotten? Did the wrinkles as she smiled make you wonder what marvellous times you’d missed? That’s how I felt about Berlin every time I came back here.”
― Len Deighton, Berlin Game

“I never really trust drinking water anywhere but Scotland; and I’ve never been to Scotland. I”
― Len Deighton, Mexico Set

“So it wasn’t tourists or encyclopaedia salesmen he was worried about.”
― Len Deighton, Spy Line

“I would still not know that Finland had a cuisine, let alone that Kalakukko, a fish pie incorporating spiky bones and heads, was a cherished part of it. So”
― Len Deighton, Faith

“I think Jay is in import and export business as his cards say, but he finally found that the second most valuable commodity today is information."
"And?"
"The most valuable?"
"People with information," I suggested.”
― Len Deighton, The Ipcress File