Quotes

I always make it a rule never to look back. Otherwise, I'd ask myself how I could write such piffle and live with myself, day after day.

[mid-1950s] My James Bond novels are really for a very specialized, limited market. I am not counting the great unwashed public and do not expect them to fancy anything I write.

I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, James Bond was much better than something more interesting like "Peregrine Maltravers". Exotic things would happen to and around him but he would be a neutral figure--an anonymous blunt instrument wielded by a government department.

[interview in The Daily Express, 1962] The target of my books lay somewhere between the solar plexus and the upper thigh.

Men want a woman whom they can turn on and off like a light switch.

[on how he wrote "Casino Royale"] Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, "Casino Royale" dutifully produced itself. I wrote nothing and made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before, I might have despaired.

[on James Bond] Apart from the fact that he wears the same clothes that I wear, he and I really have little in common. I do rather envy him his blondes and his efficiency, but I can't say I much like the chap.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

[his last words, reportedly to the ambulance attendants] Awfully sorry to trouble you chaps.

[to house-guest Peter Quennell, reminiscing about his schoolboy experiences] I will not have buggery discussed at Christmas.

I am not in the Shakespeare stakes.

Surround yourself with human beings. They are easier to fight for than principles.

Fear was the impulse for the Russians. For them it was always safer to advance than retreat. Advance against the enemy and the bullet might miss you. Retreat, evade, betray and the bullet would never miss.

The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling - a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension - becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.

I'm getting very sorry for the Devil and his disciples such as the good Le Chiffre. The Devil has a rotten time and I always like to be on the side of the underdog. We don't give the poor chap a chance. There's a Good Book about goodness and how to be good and so forth, but there's no Evil Book about evil and how to be bad. The Devil has no prophets to write his Ten Commandments and no team of authors to write his biography. His case has gone completely by default. We know nothing about him but a lot of fairy stories from our parents and schoolmasters. He has no book from which we can learn the nature of evil in all its forms, with parables about evil people, proverbs about evil people, folk-lore about evil people. All we have is the living example of the people who are least good, or our own intuition.

This country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date. Today we are fighting Communism. Okay. If I'd been alive fifty years ago, the brand of Conservatism we have today would have been damn near called Communism and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.

You only live twice: Once when you are born, and once when you look death in the face.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make bored.

The difference between a good golf shot and a bad one is the same difference between a beautiful and a plain woman - a matter of millimeters.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.

All the greatest men are maniacs. They are possessed by a mania which drives them forward towards their goal. The great scientists, the artists, the philosophers, the religious leaders - all maniacs. What else but a blind singleness of purpose could have given focus to their genius, would have kept them in the groove of their purpose? Mania is as priceless as genius. Dissipation of energy, fragmentation of vision, loss of momentum, the lack of follow-through - these are the vices of the herd.

Never say no to adventures. Always say yes, otherwise you'll lead a very dull life.