Len Deighton Quotes

That was one of the problems of marrying into wealth; there were no luxuries.

The factory workers say that it's impossible to do anything right. If you arrive five minutes early you are a saboteur; if you arrive five minutes late you are betraying socialism; if you arrive on time they say, Where did you get the watch?

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.

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.

When old men decided to barter young men for pride and profit, the transaction was called war.

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

England's civil war had ended in a consensus as the English discovered that they hated foreigners more than they hated their own countrymen.

Why do these people love you, Archer? Is it simply because you show little or no response to their affection?

Progress is man's indifference to the lessons of history.

Or was the truth - like so many truths - not any one of the envisaged possibilities?

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.

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.

In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn't work very well.

He had a long thin nose, a moustache like flock wallpaper, sparse, carefully combed hair, and the complexion of a Hovis loaf.

When they ask me to become president of the United States I'm going to say, Except for Washington D.C.

Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Yes? Well socialism is exactly the reverse.

I think the reason working-class people don't write books is because they are encouraged to believe that only certain people are permitted to write books.

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.

Whatever path you take, there is a league of bad road.

I store away my experiences and don't feel really happy until I've found a way to write about them.

Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be a professional writer.

Writers are frequently asked why they wrote their first book. A more interesting answer might come from asking them why they wrote their second one.

When the end is lawful the means are also lawful,