There’s nothing new about European anti-Americanism. To go to a dinner party of intellectuals in Paris in 1960 was like walking into a tiger’s den with a piece of raw meat in your hands. Charles McCarry Read Quote
If I were to give you a list of names of the people, world political figures, who have been assisted by the CIA, and even assisted to office around the world, you’d be astonished and probably wouldn’t believe it. But it’s very long, and the names are very distinguished. Charles McCarry Read Quote
I’ve consciously tried not to romanticize anything, especially not intelligence work. I’ve always said that I’ve been writing a series of episodic, naturalistic novels. The people just happen to be spies, politicians, civil servants. Charles McCarry Read Quote
I was swimming in my swimming pool when ‘The Secret Lovers’ popped entire into my head. I got out, dried off, went upstairs, and finished the book in about 50 days. Charles McCarry Read Quote
Other writers tell me about these bushel baskets delivered at the front door. If I’ve gotten 50 letters over the last 18 years, I’d be surprised. Charles McCarry Read Quote
When it comes to the assignment of blame, the CIA has by and large been a luckless organization. Charles McCarry Read Quote
Writing has taught me a lot – though far from everything – about writing, so as time has passed, it has become more pleasurable if not easier. I’ve done other things in life, but writing is by a factor of 10 the most difficult among them. And, of course, you never achieve what you set out to achieve, so you must keep on trying to do better. Charles McCarry Read Quote
I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about. Charles McCarry Read Quote
I don’t feel when I’m writing that I’m drawing from any other writer, but of course I must be. The writers I’ve admired have been not so very different from myself: Evelyn Waugh, for example, that kind of crystalline prose. And I’ve always admired W. Somerset Maugham more than any other writer. Charles McCarry Read Quote
I’ve always been baffled by critics of the CIA, who are horrified that it does illegal things. That is the purpose of an intelligence service: to perform illegal acts. Charles McCarry Read Quote
