A woman should be an illusion.
Against the background of this luminous and sparkling stage Bond stood in the sunshine and felt his mission to be incongruous and remote and his dark profession an affront to his fellow actors.
It was the same with the whole Russian machine. Fear was the impulse. 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.
Everything I write has a precedent in truth.
Englishmen are so odd. They are like a nest of Chinese boxes. It takes a very long time to get to the centre of them. When one gets there the result is unrewarding, but the process is instructive and entertaining.
Like all harsh, cold men, he was easily tipped over into sentiment.
I am a poet in deeds – not often in words.
Before a man’s forty, girls cost nothing. After that you have to pay money, or tell a story. Of the two, it’s the story that hurts most. Anyway I’m not forty yet.
The gain to the winner is always less than the loss to the loser.
The World Is Not Enough.
It reads better than it lives.
The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.
A gentleman’s choice of timepiece says as much about him as does his Saville Row suit.
Never say ‘no’ to adventures.
A woman can put up with almost anything; anything but indifference.
You can get far in North America with laconic grunts. “Huh,” “hun,” and “hi!” in their various modulations, together with “sure,” “guess so,” “that so?” and “nuts!” will meet almost any contingency.
It’s just that I’d rather die of drink than of thirst.
People do connect me with James Bond simply because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short-sleeved shirts and some of the things that James Bond does, but I certainly haven’t got his guts nor his very lively appetites.
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.
Diamonds are forever.