约翰·勒卡雷 ( John le Carre, 1931 – 2020 )，全球20世纪最著名的间谍小说家，五六十年代他曾在英国军情五处（MI5）和军情六处（MI6）工作.。约翰·勒卡雷是我们这个时代的编年史大师，他的作品不仅定义了最好的间谍小说，而且定义了我们这个时代的色彩。作为对人类状况和当代地缘政治有洞察力的观察者，勒卡雷的小说令人兴奋，发人深省，触及永恒的真理和当下深切感受的问题。
英汉智慧语录 English and Chinese Brainy Quotes
I think, increasingly, despite what we are being told is an ever more open world of communication, there is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secretly believes.
我认为，尽管我们被告知这是一个交流越来越开放的世界，但是普通人被告知的东西和他私下相信的东西之间存在着一种可怕的疏离感。
My definition of a decent society is one that first of all takes care of its losers, and protects its weak.
我对一个体面社会的定义是，首先要照顾失败者，保护弱者。
In the last 15 or 20 years, I’ve watched the British press simply go to hell. There seems to be no limit, no depths to which the won’t sink. I don’t know who these people are but they’re little pigs.
在过去的15到20年里，我眼睁睁地看着英国媒体走向地狱。小报似乎没有什么极限，没有什么深度不能扎进去的。我不知道这些人是谁，但他们是小猪。
The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience, do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents, however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat.
我们童年时代的怪物不会消失，它们也不会完全变成怪物。但是，根据我的经验，无论我们变得多聪明，多老，在对待父母时，我们都从来没有达到超然的境界。假装不是，就是欺骗。
Let’s all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we’ll find out who we are.
让我们都假装成另一个人，然后也许我们就会发现我们是谁。
Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader’s daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage.
大多数人喜欢读关于阴谋和间谍的书。我希望为普通读者的日常生活提供一个隐喻。我们大多数人都生活在与雇主，甚至与自己的婚姻之间的一种略带阴谋的关系中。
Most of us live in a condition of secrecy: secret desires, secret appetites, secret hatreds and relationship with the institutions which is extremely intense and uncomfortable. These are, to me, a part of the ordinary human condition. So I don’t think I’m writing about abnormal things. … Artists, in my experience, have very little center. They fake. They are not the real thing. They are spies. I am no exception.
我们大多数人生活在一个秘密的环境中: 秘密的欲望，秘密的渴望，秘密的仇恨和与机构的秘密关系。这些秘密的环境是极其强烈和令人不舒服的。对我来说，这些都是普通人生活状况的一部分。所以我不认为我在写不正常的事情. …根据我的经验，艺术家几乎没有中心。他们假的。他们不是真品。他们是间谍。我也不例外。
