There is scarcely a man born who does not need an illusion to survive.
[The last illusion of the illusionless man, Karla said of Ann to Haydon. And now Smiley had sacrificed even that, in the service of—what? Another illusion—that if he finally beat Karla, he would find peace?
He's brooding. He's got to stop that. He shakes his head, as if in bemusement, and sips his tea.]
There was a writer called Oscar Wilde—he was Irish, but lived much of his life in England. He's supposed to have said of the liquor absinthe that after the first glass, you see things as you wish they were; after the second, you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.
no subject
[The last illusion of the illusionless man, Karla said of Ann to Haydon. And now Smiley had sacrificed even that, in the service of—what? Another illusion—that if he finally beat Karla, he would find peace?
He's brooding. He's got to stop that. He shakes his head, as if in bemusement, and sips his tea.]
There was a writer called Oscar Wilde—he was Irish, but lived much of his life in England. He's supposed to have said of the liquor absinthe that after the first glass, you see things as you wish they were; after the second, you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.