Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Quotes
Control: [pouring vodka generously into a punchbowl]It'll take us five hours to get drunk on this monkey's piss!
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Bill Haydon: I thought I'd pop down and catch a glimpse at the new girl before Bland gets to her.
Peter Guillam: Ah, yes, Belinda the Blonde.
Peter Guillam: Ah, yes, Belinda the Blonde.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[Haydon rides a bicycle into the Circus office]Peter Guillam: You got clearance for that?
Bill Haydon: Well, I'm not bloody chaining it up outside. Mind you, probably no better off in here with this bunch of bloody cut-throats, they'll have the gold out of your teeth!
Bill Haydon: Well, I'm not bloody chaining it up outside. Mind you, probably no better off in here with this bunch of bloody cut-throats, they'll have the gold out of your teeth!
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Control: [signs his resignation]A man should know when to leave the party...
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Ricki Tarr: Everything the Circus thinks is gold is shit made in Moscow.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Smiley: After today, Peter, they have to assume they're watching you. If there's anything you need tidied up, now's the time.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[Alleline's telex arrives from London]Ricki Tarr: Read it aloud.
Ben: Personal for Tarr from Alleline: require clarification before meeting your request. Quote, 'information vital to safeguarding of the Circus', unquote, does not qualify, send further information.
Ricki Tarr: [laughing maniacally]That's the way, Percy boy! You keep stalling. I warn you, Ben, we've got some really lousy people in this outfit, I wouldn't trust a fucking one of them!
Ben: Personal for Tarr from Alleline: require clarification before meeting your request. Quote, 'information vital to safeguarding of the Circus', unquote, does not qualify, send further information.
Ricki Tarr: [laughing maniacally]That's the way, Percy boy! You keep stalling. I warn you, Ben, we've got some really lousy people in this outfit, I wouldn't trust a fucking one of them!
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Smiley: I met him once. Karla. In fifty-five. Moscow Centre was in pieces. Purge after purge. Half their agents were jumping ship and I traveled around signing them up. Hundreds of them. One of them was calling himself Gerstmann. He was on his way back to Russia, and we were pretty sure he was going to be executed. Plane had a twenty-four hour layover at Delhi, and that's how long I had to convince him to come over to us instead of going home to die. Little room. I'm sitting here... he's sitting there. The Americans had had him tortured. No fingernails. It's incredibly hot. I'm very tired and all I want to do is get this over with and get back home. Things weren't going well with Ann. I give him the usual pitch: come to the West and we can give you a comfortable life, after questioning. Or you can catch your plane and fly home and be shot. Think of your wife. You have a wife, don't you? I brought you some cigarettes, by the way. Use my lighter. We could arrange for her to join you, we have a lot of stock to trade. If you go back, she'll be ostracized. Think of her. Think about how much she... Kept harping on about the damn wife. Telling him more about me than... Should have walked out, of course, but for some reason it seemed important to save this one. So I go on. We are not so very different, you and I. We've both spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another's systems. Don't you think it's time to recognize there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?... Never said a word. Not one word.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Bill Haydon: You really are a poison dwarf, Toby. Why don't you fuck off to his majesty and stop trying to involve me in your little cabaret.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Ricki Tarr: [to Smiley]I want a wife and family, I don't want to end up like you.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Control: Trust no one, Jim. Especially not in the mainstream. Sit down. I understand you still have one Hungarian identity running.
Jim Prideaux: I do.
Control: I want you to go to Budapest. This is not above board. Nobody else knows. They're after my head, Jim-boy. You understand? I have had an offer of service. A Hungarian general wants to come over. I would like you to meet him. He has some information that I need, Jim.
Jim Prideaux: What information?
Control: Treasure. He has the name of the mole the Russians have planted in the British intelligence service, right at the top of the Circus. There's a rotten apple, Jim. We have to find it.
Jim Prideaux: I do.
Control: I want you to go to Budapest. This is not above board. Nobody else knows. They're after my head, Jim-boy. You understand? I have had an offer of service. A Hungarian general wants to come over. I would like you to meet him. He has some information that I need, Jim.
Jim Prideaux: What information?
Control: Treasure. He has the name of the mole the Russians have planted in the British intelligence service, right at the top of the Circus. There's a rotten apple, Jim. We have to find it.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[from trailer]George Smiley: [to Guillam]I need you to do something for me. You have to assume they're watching you...
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[from trailer]Easterhase: [to Smiley]Things aren't always what they seem.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Jim Prideaux: [on Roach, to Bill]Best watcher in the unit, I'll bet. As long's he's got his specs on, aye?
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Percy Alleline: Arabs. You can rent one but you can't buy one. Right Bill?
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Connie Sachs: [looks at old photos]That was a good time, George.
George Smiley: It was war.
Connie Sachs: A real war. Englishman could be proud, then.
George Smiley: It was war.
Connie Sachs: A real war. Englishman could be proud, then.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Connie Sachs: [to Smiley]So I was right, then; about Polyokov. There is a mole... If it's bad, don't come back. I want to remember you all as you were.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Oliver Lacon: The treasurer can't understand why can't the intelligence service simply put in a request for a general increase in funding and then you'll account for the spend on your special operation?
Percy Alleline: Operation 'Witchcraft' needs to remain a secret; it's a fiefdom of its own.
Oliver Lacon: Yes, that's what's winding us; whole thing's very unaccountable isn't it? This London house that no one knows the address of, is that really necessary?
Percy Alleline: Now more than ever, we need to protect our Soviet source.
Roy Bland: [lights a cigarette]So where do you propose we meet, in a cafÚ?
Oliver Lacon: The rent and rates on this house have... doubled.
Roy Bland: We spent millions on nuclear warheads, we're asking for a few thousand for a house. I wonder if Karla has the same problem with the treasury at the Kremlin.
Oliver Lacon: Look, nobody underestimates the importance of the jobs you chaps are doing.What happened in Budapest last year... That was a disaster.
Roy Bland: With respect, sir, that wasn't one of your civil servants that got killed, was it? Now this isn't about soldiers in trenches anymore. We're the front line now...
Oliver Lacon: Roy...
Roy Bland: For 25 years we've been the only ones standing between them and Karla and Moscow and the Third bloody World War!
Oliver Lacon: Look, the minister is very pleased with your progress so far. He's less pleased though, with our progress with our American cousins. You see, in their eyes... You're still a leaky ship.
Percy Alleline: Operation 'Witchcraft' needs to remain a secret; it's a fiefdom of its own.
Oliver Lacon: Yes, that's what's winding us; whole thing's very unaccountable isn't it? This London house that no one knows the address of, is that really necessary?
Percy Alleline: Now more than ever, we need to protect our Soviet source.
Roy Bland: [lights a cigarette]So where do you propose we meet, in a cafÚ?
Oliver Lacon: The rent and rates on this house have... doubled.
Roy Bland: We spent millions on nuclear warheads, we're asking for a few thousand for a house. I wonder if Karla has the same problem with the treasury at the Kremlin.
Oliver Lacon: Look, nobody underestimates the importance of the jobs you chaps are doing.What happened in Budapest last year... That was a disaster.
Roy Bland: With respect, sir, that wasn't one of your civil servants that got killed, was it? Now this isn't about soldiers in trenches anymore. We're the front line now...
Oliver Lacon: Roy...
Roy Bland: For 25 years we've been the only ones standing between them and Karla and Moscow and the Third bloody World War!
Oliver Lacon: Look, the minister is very pleased with your progress so far. He's less pleased though, with our progress with our American cousins. You see, in their eyes... You're still a leaky ship.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Connie Sachs: [Smiley offers her whiskey]Not supposed to, doctor's orders.
Connie Sachs: [smiles]Wicked, wicked George.
Connie Sachs: [smiles]Wicked, wicked George.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[from trailer]George Smiley: What did you think of Control's theory?
Jim Prideaux: I thought it was madness!
Jim Prideaux: I thought it was madness!
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[first lines]Control: [opening door]You weren't followed?
Jim Prideaux: No.
Control: Better come in.
Jim Prideaux: No.
Control: Better come in.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Percy Alleline: The Minister agrees with me that too many secrets are blowin' around here. Too much failure, too many scandals, too little solid intelligence.
Roy Bland: Percy does have a point, Control. We should be fighting communism, not each other.
Percy Alleline: Well, we're losing our reputation. Our partners.
Control: [scoffs]Your bloody Yanks!
Percy Alleline: And we've had enough! There's going to be changes.
Easterhase: We need to decide if we want to be part of the past or part of the future.
Control: I should have left you where I found you.
Easterhase: Look!
Roy Bland: Control-...
Control: Out! All of you!
Roy Bland: Percy does have a point, Control. We should be fighting communism, not each other.
Percy Alleline: Well, we're losing our reputation. Our partners.
Control: [scoffs]Your bloody Yanks!
Percy Alleline: And we've had enough! There's going to be changes.
Easterhase: We need to decide if we want to be part of the past or part of the future.
Control: I should have left you where I found you.
Easterhase: Look!
Roy Bland: Control-...
Control: Out! All of you!
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tufty Thesinger: You're supposed to have gone. London station has been onto me, wondering what the hell it is you're doing.
Ricki Tarr: Fuck off.
Ricki Tarr: Fuck off.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
[after Smiley recounts his interview with Karla]Peter Guillam: What did he look like?
George Smiley: That's the thing... I can't remember.
George Smiley: That's the thing... I can't remember.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Karla: Do you know this woman? [She smiles. Prisoner shakes head. Karla shoots her]
Karla: Tell Alleline what we did.
Karla: Tell Alleline what we did.
Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy