John David Washington Quotes

I spent a whole career infiltrating places.

I really wanted to be a spy. I guess it's a bit like acting, where you play a role.

You could say that all novels are spy novels and all novelists are spy masters.

In my head, I think I'd make a perfect spy, but in reality, I don't think I'd fare very well.

It was awesome and liberating to play a Russian spy.

Spying is a like a game of chess: Sometimes you have to withdraw, sometimes you have to sacrifice one of your pieces to win - preferably a knight rather than a king or queen.

I've always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.

Intelligence without counter-intelligence is useless.

Intelligence is about lies. If something is legal and above board, you would not need the CIA to do it.

If you’re going to be involved with espionage, you’ve got to be motivated. It’s not fun and games. It’s dirty and dangerous. There’s always the chance that you’re going to get burned.

It’s [the CIA] an organization that thrives on deception. How do you manage an organization like that?

Spies go undercover. They take on different personas.

I would be a terrible CIA officer in real life.

Breaking a cardinal rule of spy craft, I actually let it be known that I wanted to work for the CIA.

The life of spies is to know, not bee known.

A murderer is less loathsome to us than a spy. The murderer may have acted on a sudden mad impulse; he may be penitent and amend; but a spy is always a spy, night and day, in bed, at table, as he walks abroad; his vileness pervades every moment of his life

I love the spy genre.

Throughout my career, I had the great fortune to experience firsthand as well as to witness what it means to be a CIA officer.

I am always up to steal secrets from smart people.

Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.

I'd be a terrible secret agent. I can't keep a secret and I'm not sneaky.

Female spies typically represented one of two extremes: the seductress who employed her wiles to manipulate men, and the cross-dresser who blended in by impersonating them.

A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

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.