Home > Work > A Legacy of Spies
1 " When the truth finally catches up to you, don't be a hero and run. "
― John le Carré , A Legacy of Spies
2 " The tortured are a class apart. You can imagine – just – where they’ve been, but never what they’ve brought back. "
3 " Did I fuck her? No, I bloody well didn’t. I made mute, frenzied love to her in pitch darkness for six life-altering hours, in an explosion of tension and lust between two bodies that had desired each other from birth and had only the night to live. "
4 " The classified cat watches from the kitchen window. "
5 " I’m a European, Peter. If I had a mission – if I was ever aware of one beyond our business with the enemy, it was to Europe. If I was heartless, I was heartless for Europe. If I had an unattainable ideal, it was of leading Europe out of her darkness towards a new age of reason. I have it still. "
6 " a night-time journey of the soul "
7 " We were wondering, you see,’ he said in a faraway voice, ‘whether you’d ever considered signing up with us on a more regular basis? People who have worked on the outside for us don’t always fit well on the inside. But in your case, we think you might. We don’t pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it’s an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means. "
8 " Do you now have all the information you require?’ ‘No.’ ‘I envy you. "
9 " To Tabitha, these are facts of history. For those of us who endured them, they are a time of despair, bewilderment and frustration. "
10 " En cualquier interrogatorio, la negación es el punto de inflexión. "
11 " es un trabajo importante, siempre que creas en los fines y no te preocupen demasiado los medios. "
12 " What follows is a truthful account, as best I am able to provide it, of my role in the British deception operation, codenamed Windfall, that was mounted against the East German Intelligence Service (Stasi) in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, and resulted in the death of the best British secret agent I ever worked with, and of the innocent woman for whom he gave his life. "
13 " When the truth catches up with you, don’t be a hero, run. "
14 " en cambio, no intenta derribar la puerta a patadas cuando acaban de cerrársela en la cara. Prefiere reagrupar fuerzas y avanzar sobre su objetivo desde otro "
15 " But we do feel it’s an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means. "
16 " In any interrogation, denial is the tipping point. Never mind the courtesies that went before. From the moment of denial, things are never going to be the same. "
17 " The tortured are a class apart. You can imagine – just – where they’ve been, but never what they’ve brought back. "
18 " how much of our human feeling can we dispense with in the name of freedom, would you say, before we cease to feel either human or free? Or were we simply suffering from the incurable English disease of needing to play the world’s game when we weren’t world players any more? "
19 " شما همه مریض هستید. شما جاسوس‌ها. شماها درمان درد نیستید، خود مرض هستید. هنرمندان ارضای خودتان هستید. بازی‌تان هم برای ارضای خودتان است. ولی پیش خودتان خیال می‌کنید بزرگ‌ترین عقلای کوفتی جهان شماهایید. شماها هیچید. می‌شنوی؟ در تاریکی کوفتی زندگی می‌کنید چون نمی‌توانید با نور کوفتی کنار بیایید. او هم همین‌طوری بود. خودش به من گفت. "
20 " خب، بالاخره وقت حساب پس دادن است. بالاخره وقتش رسیده برای سوال‌های سخت جواب‌های سرراست بگیرم. سوالاتی مثل جورج، آیا تو آگاهانه انسانیت را در من سرکوب کردی، یا من هم جزء عوارض جانبی بودم؟ یا مثل انسانیت خودت چی، جورج؟ چرا همیشه ادعای آرمانی بالاتر، آرمانی انتزاعی را می‌کردی؟ آرمانی که حتی اگر آن‌وقت‌ها هم می‌توانستم دست رویش بگذارم، حالا دیگر نمی‌توانم؟ یا یک جور دیگر بپرسم: چقدر از عواطف انسانی خودمان را می‌توانیم به اسم آزادی نادیده بگیریم قبل از اینکه، این‌طور بگویم، هم انسانیت را از دست بدهیم هم آزادی را؟ یا نکند از همان مرض لاعلاج انگلیسی رنج می‌بردیم؟ یعنی نیاز به شرکت در بازی جهان، آن‌هم وقتی که دیگر بازیگران جهانی نبودیم؟ "
