Quotes from Ian Fleming

Her eyes were wide apart and deep blue and they gazed candidly back at Bond with a touch of ironical disinterest which, to his annoyance, he found he would like to shatter, roughly.

The disadvantage of the beautiful deep ting-tong, ting-tong of the Bermuda carriage bell is that it cannot possibly sound angry, however angrily you may sound it.

The seventy million cubic metres of rubble in Berlin are gradually being made into mountains, which then will be turfed and have trees planted on them. These mountains are known as Monte Klamotten—Rubbish Mountains—and the total operation is known as 'Hitler's Collected Works'.

I'm a slow learner. It's true. But I learn , I can't deny it.

first print

Fate rebuked him with terrifying swiftness.

Before that nothing out of the ordinary – usual flow of people in and out of a busy government building – except, of all things, a whole damned women's orchestra.

Life is full of death, my friend.

Think I like this job? Having a Double-O number and so on? I'd be quite happy for you to get me sacked from the Double-O Section. Then I could settle down and make a snug nest of papers as an ordinary Staffer. Right?

Engelsen zijn nu eenmaal eigenaardig. Ze lijken op Chinese, in elkaar passende dozen. Het duurt een hele tijd eer je bij de binnenste bent. En als het je eenmaal gelukt is, dan is het resultaat teleurstellend, maar het proces is leerzaam en onderhoudend.

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

has been stolen by the witchdoctor.

He quit while he was still alive.

WHEN THE Diamond Smugglers was first published Ian Fleming had a copy bound for his own library. On the flyleaf, as was his custom, he wrote a short paragraph describing its genesis. It started with the alarming words: "This was written in 2 weeks in Tangiers, April 1957." As the ensuing tale of woe made clear, he didn't consider it his finest fortnight. He ended with the dismissive verdict: "It

America's a civilized country. More or less.

This was just what he had been afraid of. These blithering women who thought they could do a man's work. Why the hell couldn't they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men's work to the men.

Bond was glad to be on his way to the soft green flanks of Jamaica and to be leaving behind the great hard continent of Eldollarado.

It was the mistakes one made at the beginning of a case that were the worst. They were the irretrievable ones, the ones that got you off on the wrong foot, that gave the enemy the first game.

You start to die the moment you are born. The whole of life is cutting through the pack with death. So take it easy. Light a cigarette and be grateful you are still alive as you suck the smoke deep into your lungs. Your stars have already let you come quite a long way since you left your mother's womb

Some of his girls will dance for you. I will not suggest that they should entertain you more intimately. You must keep your sword sharp. There is a saying ``Once a King, always a King. But once a Knight is enough!

If you fail at the large things it means you have not large ambitions. Concentration, focus Ã¢â'¬â€œ that is all. The aptitudes come, the tools forge themselves. "Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world" Ã¢â'¬â€œ but only if the desire to move the world is there.

In the evening darkness doesn't really fall, it rises. When

There were no big fish about, but many lobsters were out of their holes looking huge and prehistoric in the magnifying lens of the water. Their stalk-like eyes glared redly at him and their foot-long spined antennae asked him for the password.

Señor Bond; en Chicago tienen un proverbio: «Una vez es casualidad; dos, coincidencia; y la tercera vez… una acción hostil».