Doug Liman Quotes

The world of spying is my genre. My struggle is to demystify, to de-romanticise the spook world, but at the same time harness it as a good story.

I've always wanted to be a spy, and frankly I'm a little surprised that British intelligence has never approached me.

There are few archbishops in espionage. He's on our side and that's all that matters. Besides, one needn't ask him to one's club.

There is only one law of espionage—there are always going to be spies.

This is the wonderful thing about espionage, nothing exists any more.

The human spy, in terms of the American espionage effort, had never been terribly pertinent.

I've been a spy for almost all of my adult life - I don't like being in the spotlight.

I've always dreamt of having some sort of undercover job. I think it's probably the coolest thing in the world, but ultimately a very lonely life.

I always liked spy stories.

The more real I got on 'The Bourne Identity,' the more interesting it got. So 'Fair Game' was the chance to go a few more steps in that direction. In fact, I discovered this whole other world that I had ignored in the 'Bourne' franchise, which is the domestic life of a spy, and how you make the two halves of your life coexist.

Since real spies are so good, you never really know what actual spying is. But I do think spying is a lot more dangerous than we are led to believe.

My name is E. Howard Hunt. I'm currently retired from more than 22 years in the profession of espionage.

I would have loved to have met some former spies, but they don't readily advertise themselves unless they're not living in Moscow, and even then. I'm sure I've met some without realizing 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.

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

Everybody thinks it's glamorous and this spy versus spy stuff is so exciting, but working in that industry and being a CIA operative, like a field officer, is tough. That's a difficult job that usually dismantles their lives in some capacity.

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.

I love the spy genre.

With stealth technology, the U.S. could spy on its Cold War adversaries without running the risk of getting caught.

I saw a limit to what I was giving as kind of a scam I was running on the KGB, by giving them people that I knew were their double agents fed to us.

However I dress it up, I was a spy and I am not proud of it.

My father was famous for his photographic memory. He was in the OSS. They trained him to be captured on purpose and to read upside down and backwards and commit to memory every document in Germany he saw as he was being interrogated - every schedule on every wall. So, that photographic memory somehow made its way to me when I was young.

Since that time I have had continuous contact with the persons who were completely unknown to me, except that I knew they would hand whatever information I gave them to the Russian authorities.

I love the combination of the words 'spies' and 'Balkans.' It's like meat and potatoes.

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.