Val Guest Quotes

I had still never read one of the Bond books when the movie Dr. No came out.

That's it. I've said all I've got to say on the world of James Bond.

I grew up with Bond.

Before Jason Bourne, before Jack Ryan, there was Bond, James Bond, the original two-dimensional, world-saving secret agent.

I can bore for England on the subject of James Bond. But I knew I couldn't do it frivolously; I had to take it very seriously, however much fun I was having. And I had to make myself, you know, absolutely steeped in Bond and in Fleming and that world.

I'm a huge fan of the 'James Bond' genre.

Bond was how Fleming saw himself; the sardonic, cruel mouth, the hard, tight skinned face.

I care about Bond and what happens to him. You cannot be connected with a character for this long and not have an interest. All the Bond films had their good points.

My favorite Bond films are the really early ones, the first ones in fact, like 'Dr. No' and 'From Russia with Love.'

I only met Ian Fleming once, at a party given by my father's friend the director Carol Reed, at his house at 211 King's Road, Chelsea, the garden of which he shared with Peter Ustinov.

Ask Bond-watchers of a certain age about the six actors who have slipped into Bond's Savile Row suits in the Broccoli franchise, and they might say it's really Connery and five other guys - since he, being first and being Sean, stamped the role with his sulfurous masculinity.

For a brief moment, Ian Fleming made being an Englishman seem sexy, even to the French. He should have been awarded a knighthood, even possibly the Garter.

I've got so much respect for 'Bond.' It's such an iconic cultural behemoth. I love the whole story - Ian Fleming's stories are amazing.

Charles Kiss is a legendary James Bond-style British spy. And McGrath is the young idealist who is given the task of following in his footsteps. It's a mission that forces McGrath to question everything he thought he believed in.

There was no actual person who was James Bond, despite all the books.

Bond in 'Goldeneye' is pretty much a set character. To be honest, he's another version of Connery, and Connery was terrific. How many submarines can you blow up? How many control rooms are evaporating?

The creation of George Smiley, the retired spy recalled to hunt for just such a high-ranking mole in 'Tinker, Tailor,' was extremely personal. I borrowed elements of people I admired and invested them in this mythical character. I'm such a fluent, specious person now, but I was an extremely awkward fellow in those days.

Honestly, not being evasive, but the great thing about Bond is that I have fifty years of movies - 23 movies and all the Ian Fleming novels and short stories, all of which are fodder. And when I'm working on the new Bond, I'm constantly going back to Fleming and the other movies - what are the bits and pieces, what are the resonances?

I love watching the Bond movies obviously and I grew up reading the books as a kid. I've always loved them because of that.

I think 'The Spy Who Loved Me' was the best, or rather the one I enjoyed doing the most.

Yeah, I'd make a decent Bond. But it'd be very, very different if I did it.

One of my biggest influences, of course, is David Simon and his work on 'The Wire.'

I love 'Bond' movies, I love spy movies.

When I wrote the first [Bond novel] in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard.

I've never purposefully based a character on any one person I know, but I'm certain there are amalgamations that exist.