I began writing when I was still in the British Foreign Service, and it was then understood that even if you wrote about butterfly collecting, you used another name.
John Le CarreRead
Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writing a book is a creative process that requires dedication and effort, akin to the experience of childbirth.
In this quote, John Le Carré draws a parallel between the arduous yet rewarding process of completing a book and the profound experience of bringing a new life into the world. Both endeavors involve a significant investment of time, energy, and emotion, ultimately leading to the creation of something meaningful and valuable that can have a lasting impact.
Themes
WritingCreativityBooksArtCreation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at a literary festival, one might say, 'Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby, both require love and dedication.'
More from John Le Carre
All quotes →In every war zone that I've been in, there has been a reality and then there has been the public perception of why the war was being fought. In every crisis, the issues have been far more complex than the public has been allowed to know.
John Le CarreRead
The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.
John Le CarreRead
The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous.
John Le CarreRead
Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.
John Le CarreRead
If I had to put a name to it, I would wish that all my books were entertainments. I think the first thing you've got to do is grab the reader by the ear, and make him sit down and listen. Make him laugh, make him feel. We all want to be entertained at a very high level.
John Le CarreRead
Similar quotes
I think of myself as a theater animal instead of an intellectual animal.
Tom StoppardRead
Imagine that we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant the room we are sitting in is completely altered; everything in it has taken on another look; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed and the objects are as we conceive them. That is the effect I want to get in my film.
Carl Theodor DreyerRead
Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.
Coco ChanelRead
Authorities in Rabat believe that if we create a Moroccan character, even in a work of fiction, we are responsible for the image of Moroccan women.
Leila SlimaniRead
They're not particular whether you're playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.
Dizzy GillespieRead
When any civilization is dust and ashes," he said, "art is all that's left over. Images, words, music. Imaginative structures. Meaning—human meaning, that is—is defined by them. You have to admit that.
Margaret AtwoodRead