Quotes by Charles Mccarry - Page 1

China, hidden and mysterious, has always interested me.
Charles Mccarry /
Mysterious
Hidden
Copy Quote
Espionage and counterespionage go together like horse and carriage.
Charles Mccarry /
Espionage
Horse
Together
Carriage
Copy Quote
Usually after finishing a novel, I have a head full of bad ideas for the next one.
Charles Mccarry /
Bad Ideas
Finishing
Copy Quote
When it comes to the assignment of blame, the CIA has by and large been a luckless organization.
Charles Mccarry /
Blame
Cia
Assignment
Copy Quote
I've certainly written a lot of things that have more or less come true. But I don't have a gift for prophecy.
Charles Mccarry /
Prophecy
More Or Less
Copy 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 /
Letters
Delivered
Front Door
Surprised
Copy 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 /
Lovers
Pool
Swimming
Swimming Pool
Upstairs
Dried
Copy 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 /
Baffled
Cia
Critics
Illegal
Acts
Horrified
Copy Quote
Anything that's secret, clandestine, loaded with such a supercargo of speculation, misinformation, disinformation and, for that matter, accurate revelations, creates an appetite.
Charles Mccarry /
Accurate
Appetite
Loaded
Matter
Misinformation
Revelations
Secret
Speculation
Creates
Disinformation
Copy Quote
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 /
Dinner
Dinner Party
Meat
Nothing New
Den
Intellectuals
Raw
Tiger
Copy 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 /
Civil Servants
Work Intelligence Always
Work Intelligence People
Episodic
Naturalistic
Servants
Spies
Copy Quote
As an old man who remembers the intellectual exhilaration and the pleasure of having done good work that characterized the CIA when it was young, I wonder if it might not be better to speak and think in terms of restoring its culture.
Charles Mccarry /
Cia
Exhilaration
Good Work
Intellectual
Old Man
Restoring
Work Good Done
Work Good Better
Work Good Man
Characterized
Remembers
Copy Quote
I cannot grasp the difference between killing people with drones or rifles and knives. The objective in war is to kill the enemy before he kills you. I can't fathom the almost religious zeal with which the use of drones is being opposed.
Charles Mccarry /
Drones
Enemy
Fathom
Rifles
Zeal
Grasp
Opposed
Objective
Copy 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 /
Peculiar
Copy 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 /
Cia
Distinguished
Figures
Assisted
Astonished
Political World Believe
List
Copy Quote
People are dying to tell you their secrets; it's just a matter of getting the conversation going in the right direction. If you just let people fill the silence, they will let you the most extraordinary things. I sometimes wonder if afterward they remember what they've said.
Charles Mccarry /
Conversation
Dying
Extraordinary
Extraordinary Things
Right Direction
Silence
Afterwards
Fill
Copy Quote
I have to tell you, I'm a happy man. I've lived the life I wanted to live. I've written the books I wanted to write. No publisher has ever even suggested that I change so much as a phrase - commas and periods, yes - and I suspect that I have a lot of serious readers; in fact, I know.
Charles Mccarry /
Happy Man
Periods
Life Change Man
Commas
Phrase
Publisher
Readers
Suggested
Suspect
Copy 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 /
Drawing
Prose
Myself Always Feel
Admired
For Example
Copy Quote
Writing for me is not a premeditated act. It just happens - characters keep coming out of nowhere and doing things I never expected them to do. The most persistent and most productive of these has been Paul Christopher, whom I didn't expect to see again after he appeared in 'The Miernik Dossier.'
Charles Mccarry /
Me Doing See
Appeared
Me Keep Doing
Nowhere
Christopher
Paul
Copy Quote
Richard M. Helms, the first director of Central Intelligence to rise from the ranks, was fond of saying that the CIA had been founded to make sure that there would never be another Pearl Harbor. Underlying this mission impossible was the wishful supposition that an America that knew everything could prevent anything.
Charles Mccarry /
Cia
Supposition
Rise
Central
Fond
Harbor
Mission
Pearl
Pearl Harbor
Prevent
Ranks
Underlying
Wishful
Copy 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 /
Life Time Better
Life Time Me
Factor
Passed
Pleasurable
Copy Quote

Related Authors

Nelson Mandela
Former President Of South Africa
Thursday, Jul 18, 1918
Thursday, Dec 05, 2013
Soren Kierkegaard
Philosopher
Wednesday, May 05, 1813
Sunday, Nov 11, 1855
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essayist
Wednesday, May 25, 1803
Thursday, Apr 27, 1882
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright
Saturday, Jul 26, 1856
Thursday, Nov 02, 1950
Billy Graham
Evangelist
Thursday, Nov 07, 1918
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights Activist
Tuesday, Jan 15, 1929
Thursday, Apr 04, 1968
Heraclitus
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Michael Jordan
Basketball Player
Sunday, Feb 17, 1963
Walt Whitman
Poet
Monday, May 31, 1819
Saturday, Mar 26, 1892
John Muir
Author
Saturday, Apr 21, 1838
Thursday, Dec 24, 1914
George Carlin
Comedian
Wednesday, May 12, 1937
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
Dr. Seuss
Writer
Wednesday, Mar 02, 1904
Tuesday, Sep 24, 1991
Martin Luther
Monk
Saturday, Nov 10, 1483
Monday, Feb 18, 1546
Kim Kardashian
Television Personality
Tuesday, Oct 21, 1980
Pope John Paul Ii
Priest
Tuesday, May 18, 1920
Saturday, Apr 02, 2005

View All Quotes

Top Authors

John F. Kennedy
35Th U.s. President
Tuesday, May 29, 1917
Friday, Nov 22, 1963
Stephen Covey
Author
Monday, Oct 24, 1932
Monday, Jul 16, 2012
Theodore Roosevelt
26Th U.s. President
Wednesday, Oct 27, 1858
Monday, Jan 06, 1919
Donald Trump
45Th President Of The United States
Friday, Jun 14, 1946
H. L. Mencken
Journalist
Sunday, Sep 12, 1880
Sunday, Jan 29, 1956
Stephen Hawking
Physicist
Thursday, Jan 08, 1942
Francis Of Assisi
Saint
Thursday, Jun 24, 1182
Saturday, Oct 03, 1226
Muhammad Ali
Professional Boxer
Saturday, Jan 17, 1942
Friday, Jun 03, 2016
Dalai Lama
Saturday, Jul 06, 1935
Henry Ford
Industrialist
Thursday, Jul 30, 1863
Monday, Apr 07, 1947
Mother Teresa
Saint
Friday, Aug 26, 1910
Friday, Sep 05, 1997
Napoleon Bonaparte
Military Commander
Tuesday, Aug 15, 1769
Saturday, May 05, 1821
Walt Whitman
Poet
Monday, May 31, 1819
Saturday, Mar 26, 1892
Thomas Sowell
Economist
Monday, Jun 30, 1930
Ernest Hemingway
Author
Friday, Jul 21, 1899
Sunday, Jul 02, 1961

View All Authors

Charles Mccarry Quotes - Page 1

App & Tools

Related Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page