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IMDb > "Smiley's People" (1982) > Memorable quotes

Memorable quotes for
"Smiley's People" (1982) More at IMDbPro »

George Smiley: In my time, Peter Guillam, I've seen Whitehall skirts go up and come down again. I've listened to all the excellent argument for doing nothing, and reaped the consequent frightful harvest. I've watched people hop up and down and call it progress. I've seen good men go to the wall and the idiots get promoted with a dazzling regularity. All I'm left with is me and thirty-odd years of cold war without the option.
Peter Guillam: So what does that mean in little words?
George Smiley: It means that if a rogue elephant, to use Saul Enderby's happy phrase, charges at me out of the thicket of my past and gives me a second shot at it, I intend to shoot it dead - but with the minimum of force.
George Smiley: [on Grigoriev] So, how conscious is he?
Toby Esterhase: George, he's Russian, OK? The Russians think the butterflies are spying on them.
Lauder Strickland: Oh dammit, George, that whole era is dead.
George Smiley: And so is Vladimir! And I wish to God we'd got half his courage and one tenth his integrity.
Saul Enderby: It isn't some wicked Bolshie plot, is it, George, to lure us to our ultimate destruction?
George Smiley: I'm afraid that we're no longer worth the candle, Saul.
Toby Esterhase: You want a picture of Karla, George? I get you one more up to date than that, authentic provenance, no question.
George Smiley: Thank you, Toby. I'm only interested in the original.
Toby Esterhase: Grigoriev has a salad. She has steak and chips, glass of beer, and a slice of cake. George, the guy will fold, believe me! You never had a wife like that.
George Smiley: No, I don't think I ever did.
Toby Esterhase: You think he wants to be locked up in a two-room flat in Moscow with that bitch for the rest of his life? Ha hah, don't worry.
Toby Esterhase: At a certain age a man's got to be what he deserves. I spent fifteen years at the Circus trying to be an English gentleman. You know what I am now? A cheap Austro-Hungarian in expensive clothes. I've come home.
Ferguson: I'm still on the side of the angels.
George Smiley: I didn't know we had any angels.
Toby Esterhase: First we'd take the document to Max. That's you, George. Max would know its meaning, Max would reward us. Gifts, promotion, medals, maybe we'd get lunch with the Queen. Only problem was, Vladimir didn't know you were on the shelf and the Circus had joined the Boy Scouts.
Toby Esterhase: You remember the first rule of retirement, George? No moonlighting, no fooling with loose ends, no private enterprise, ever. You remember who preaches this rule, at Sarratt, in the corridors? George Smiley did. Quote, "When it's over, it's over. Pull down the shutters, go home," unquote. We're over, George. We've got no license. They don't want us anymore.
[Lacon is handling an antique book on Smiley's desk]
George Smiley: Oliver, would you mind leaving that alone? It's not mine, and it's worth half the gross national product.
Oliver Lacon: Funny about children. Beggars keep you awake when they're there, and when they're not you can't sleep.
Connie Sachs: Is that booze you're toting in your pocket, or a bloody great gun?
George Smiley: It's fatal either way.
Connie Sachs: Oh, goody, let's have lots!
George Smiley: What was it you used to say? "I wouldn't trust Saul Enderby any further than I could throw Oliver Lacon."
Connie Sachs: George Smiley, the Chelsea Pensioner, God help us! Fought every war since Thermopylae, hot, cold and deep-frozen! Give it up. Be like the old fool here. Grab yourself a bit of love and wait for Armageddon.
[Smiley sees Peter Guillam's Porsche for the first time]
George Smiley: What a perfectly revolting little car! How ever will we all fit in?
Peter Guillam: It's bloody typical of London, not telling me you're out here. I mean, that's par for the course, these days. I usually pick it up from the Queen's Messenger six weeks after the event! Not like in your day.
George Smiley: I'm sorry to have to tell you, Peter, I'm working on my own these days.
Peter Guillam: Bloody hell, George! I must say, you do put a strain on friendship, you do! You mean I just called out the entire Emergency Service in Paris to assist you in a piece of private enterprise?
George Smiley: Find a phone box, ring your wife, if there's anybody in the house tell her to get rid of them. I'm sure she's understanding.
Peter Guillam: George, she's pregnant! Forgive us, Madame.
Madame Ostrakova: You are abducting me?
Peter Guillam: Oh, no, Madame.
Madame Ostrakova: I'm a little disappointed, Monsieur.
Peter Guillam: The Ambassador's going to love this, he really is!
George Smiley: It will cause great embarrassment to the man who sent them.
Claus Kretzschmar: Will it kill him?
George Smiley: It will do worse than kill him.
Toby Esterhase: Don't do that again, you hear me?
Anton Grigoriev: I don't speak to scum like you! What are you, a Polish? Magyar? I don't speak to anti-Party elements! I am Russian!
Toby Esterhase: Don't do it again.
Toby Esterhase: George, do me a favor, okay? You want a Hungarian babysitter someday, call me. You go messing around with creeps like Kirov and Leipzig, you better have a creep like Toby look after you. You're an old spy in a hurry, George. You used to say they were the worst.
George Smiley: Oh they are, Toby, they are.
Connie Sachs: Oh, stop flirting, George.
Ann Smiley: I'm all you've got, George. I'm all there is; there isn't anything else. I want to stop looking. I want you to do the same. Oh, for God's sake, let's pull down the shutters and be a boring married couple.
George Smiley: I came to tell you that, while I am away - well, it's widely known within the intelligence fraternity - on all sides - that you used to be dear to me. So you and I are both at risk while I'm away.
Ann Smiley: And afterwards?
[long pause]
George Smiley: Goodbye.
Connie Sachs: George Smiley, born in captivity.
Peter Guillam: Do they get a special price, too?
Toby Esterhase: For George, they do it for nothing.
Toby Esterhase: Grigorieva got herself a driving license two months ago. And she's terrible! Terrible, like lousy. You know what Pauli Skordeno says to me? He says, "Toby, I need danger money just to follow that woman."
Toby Esterhase: The Grigorievs left their house five minutes ago. She's driving. Most likely they die before they get here.
George Smiley: Did she drive last week?
Toby Esterhase: Also the week before. She insists. George, that woman is a monster.
Toby Esterhase: He's so conspicuous he's embarassing.
George Smiley: You're very piano, Peter.
Peter Guillam: I'm just feeling my age.
Saul Enderby: Oh, that reminds me, George. Did you twist that young fellow Mostyn's tail, by any chance?
George Smiley: Whatever do you mean?
Saul Enderby: Yes, I thought so. That's why I sacked him. Tried to sell him to the BBC, but they wouldn't have him. What's he up to now, Strickland?
Lauder Strickland: He's in retreat, sir. Joined an order of Franciscan monks near Ipswich.
Saul Enderby: Ipswich, eh? Cold bloody spot to pray.
Saul Enderby: The point is, I suppose, having set up his apparatus, trained it to accept his iron rule, Karla didn't dare use it for this deal, that's your point?
George Smiley: That's my point.
Saul Enderby: Ergo, we're dealing with a bunch of ninnies, not red-toothed hoods.
George Smiley: Not ninnies, just ordinary people.
Saul Enderby: You mean hoods aren't?
George Smiley: Karla was under stress. He had to take risks.
Saul Enderby: Like bumping chaps off.
George Smiley: That was more recent.
Saul Enderby: You're bloody forgiving these days, aren't you, George?
George Smiley: Am I? If you say so.
Saul Enderby: Bloody meek, too!
Saul Enderby: All right so far, everyone? Peter? Still stumbling along behind me, are you?
Peter Guillam: I think so, sir.
Saul Enderby: How's marriage?
Peter Guillam: Blissful, thank you, sir.
Saul Enderby: Give it three years.
Oliver Lacon: George, do you think we set our women up too high? Is that where we English middle-class chaps go wrong?
George Smiley: It may be, Oliver, yes.
Oliver Lacon: Well, if it isn't, then why does Val always fall for shits? We were always taught that women were to be cherished. That if we didn't make them feel loved every moment of the day, they'd go off the rails! This chap Val's with, she annoys him, speaks out of turn! It's mad that he hasn't given her a black eye! You and I never do that.
Oliver Lacon: We're birds of a feather, George. We're both patriots. Givers, not takers. Trained to our Services, our country... We must pay the price. You know, if Ann had been your agent instead of your wife, you'd probably have run her pretty well.
Alexandra Ostrakova: Why do you never make love to me, Uncle Anton? You can, you know.
Anton Grigoriev: You are terrorists! But if you are terrorists, why don't you bind my eyes? Why do you let me see your faces? You must cover them! I want no knowledge of you! I demand! I demand!
George Smiley: You are Counselor Anton Grigoriev of the Soviet Embassy in Bern, yes?
Anton Grigoriov: Grigoriev? I am Grigoriev. Yes, well done! I am Grigoriev! And who are you, please? Al Capone? Who are you? And why do you rumble at me like a commissar?
George Smiley: Then, Counselor, since we cannot afford to delay, I suggest you study the incriminating photographs on the table beside you.
Anton Grigoriev: Oh, Grigoriev, you fool! You are so weak, so weak! Why didn't you say no? You are a fool and a clown. You should be in the asylum instead of the girl. You are an idiot and a fool!
Toby Esterhase: George, all your life! Fantastic!
[last lines]
Peter Guillam: Come on, old friend, it's bedtime. George, you won!
George Smiley: Did I? Yes, well, I suppose I did.
[reading a spy's confession]
Saul Enderby: "Karla's signal referred me to several émigré families who might be persuaded by pressure to adopt such an agent as their own child, since blackmail is considered preferable to bribery." Damn right it is.
[lifts his glass]
Saul Enderby: Cheers. At the present rate of inflation, blackmail's about the only thing that keeps its value.
Saul Enderby: Well, why doesn't he dig up his treasure? Put it somewhere else and cover his traces? The shit's in the fan, he knows that, Kirov's confessed!
George Smiley: Perhaps the treasure refuses to be moved. Perhaps Karla's options have run out.
Saul Enderby: It's daylight madness to leave that Swiss bank account intact!
George Smiley: It was daylight madness to use a fool like Kirov. It was madness to approach Ostrakova, and madness to believe that by killing three people he could stop the leak.
George Smiley: It's simply a question of whether your Service wants the product. I can't see that anything else is ultimately of very much importance.
Saul Enderby: Can't you, by God! Oh, I want him all right. I want the Mona Lisa, and the Chairman of the Chinese People's Republic, and next year's winner of the Irish Sweep. I want Karla sitting in the hot seat at Sarratt, coughing out his life story to the inquisitors. I want the American Cousins to eat out of my hand for years to come. I want the whole ball game, of course I do.
[on Grigoriev]
George Smiley: So which way will he jump when we hit him?
Toby Esterhase: Burning, George, that's always a hazard, know what I mean? Some guys get heroic and want to die for their countries suddenly. Other guys roll over and lie still the moment you put the arm on them. Burning, that touches the stubbornness in certain people.
[waiting at the Berlin Wall for Karla]
Peter Guillam: [pointing to a man] George...
George Smiley: If he comes, he'll come on time.
Peter Guillam: Then why did we get here two hours early?
George Smiley: We owe it to him. Nobody else is on his side.
George Smiley: [about Otto Leipzig] And he had a partner, yes that comes back to me too. An immigrant. An East German.
Toby Esterhase: Hm! Worse than East German. Saxon. Name of Kretzschmar. First name Claus, with a "C". Don't ask me why. I mean these guys have no logic at all. Claus Kretzschmar was also a creep. Blond creep, lot of muscles.
George Smiley: But that was long ago, Toby.
Toby Esterhase: Who cares? It was a perfect marriage.
George Smiley: [to himself] Then I expect it didn't last.
Toby Esterhase: George, listen to me. So, Ann gave you a bad time with Bill Haydon? So there's Karla, who was Bill's big daddy in Moscow. I mean, this gets very crude, George, you know what I mean? It puts a strain on friendship.
George Smiley: Good afternoon, Mr. Brownlow.
Mr. Brownlow: Oh, hello sir. How's Lady Ann?
George Smiley: She's very lucky. I've bought her a present. I was wondering if I could put it in your safe and come back for it later?
Mr. Brownlow: Doesn't tick, does it?
George Smiley: Only in wet weather.
Connie Sachs: How's the demon wife?
George Smiley: Flourishing, I gather.
Connie Sachs: You gather? Wish you would gather. Either gather her up for good, or drop her down a hole.
Toby Esterhase: This an interrogation, George?
George Smiley: You know me, Toby.
Toby Esterhase: Sure I know you. You want matches so you can burn my feet?
George Smiley: You know why they call Karla "The Sandman", don't you? He has a way of putting to sleep whomever gets too close to him.
[Esterhase and his men have sidled up to Gregoriev in a public park]
Toby Esterhase: The old city of Thun is not sufficiently appreciated, I believe, by members of our distinguished diplomatic community here. In my view it is to be recommended both for its antiquity, and its banking facilities. Do you not agree?
Saul Enderby: You'd think a man making his deathbed confession would have the grace to keep it brief, wouldn't you, but oh no... not our Kirov.
Vladimir's Neighbour: Are you a burglar, dearie?
George Smiley: I'm afraid not. Just a visitor.
Vladimir's Neighbour: Still, it's nice to fancied, isn't it dearie?
George Smiley: Very gratifying. Thank you.
Claus Kretzschmar: Other people sell ties, I sell sex.
Toby Esterhase: I have an alibi for every day of the year hiding from my bank manager.
George Smiley: I'm afraid Vladi's disappeared for good, William. It's in the papers. He's been shot dead. The police will want to ask you questions. I have to hear what happened and tell you how to answer them.
Villem Craven: Bozhémoy! For the others, I give nothing. For Vladi, everything. I love this man. After the death of my father, Vladi become father to me. Sometimes I even say him, "my father". Not "Uncle". "Father".
Villem Craven: Was Soviets, Max, was Soviet spies! They kill Vladimir! He know too much.
Stella Craven: So do you. So do we all.
George Smiley: And the safety signal? The signal which says "I am not being followed".
Villem Craven: Was Hamburg newspaper from yesterday.
Stella Craven: Oh, Bill. Bill, you stupid bloody fool.
[she walks away]
Stella Craven: I mean why didn't they just put it in the bloody post, whatever it is, and be done with it?
Toby Esterhase: You do not buy photographs from Otto Leipzig, you don't buy Degas from Signor Benati, you follow me?
Claus Kretzschmar: [about the photo of Kirov] This was not business. This was friendship.
Villem Craven: I ask him, "Vladimir, who knows I do this for you?" "Only Mikhel, a very little," he said. "Mikhel is my friend. But even to friends, we cannot trust." "Enemies I do not fear," he said, "but friends, I fear greatly."
George Smiley: Nobody knows the full story except Connie.
Connie Sachs: Mice eaten the files, have they?
George Smiley: You know how mice are.
Connie Sachs: I know how rats are. How is the bastard, anyway?
George Smiley: Which one?
George Smiley: I need your memory, Con.
Connie Sachs: Bust. Out of order. I've discovered love since we parted. Addles the hormones, rots the teeth.
The General: Get me Max immediately!
Nigel Mostyn: Look, Max isn't here. I'm sorry.
The General: There must be a meeting. Tonight. A meeting or nothing! I insist on Moscow Rules! Tell Max I've been in touch with certain friends. Yes, and through friends, with neighbours. Tell this to Max.
Oliver Lacon: God, how I hate autumn.
George Smiley: How's...?
Oliver Lacon: Abandoned me, dammit. Ran off with her pesky riding instructor, blast it. Left me with the children. Oh, the girls are all farmed out to boarding school, thank God!
George Smiley: I'm sorry.
Oliver Lacon: I don't see why should you be? Not your wife.
George Smiley: What do you want me to do?
Oliver Lacon: I want you to bury him, in both senses. I want you to pour oil on the waters, not muddy them.
George Smiley: [deliberately] Tell me what you want me to do, Oliver.
Oliver Lacon: It's what I don't want you to do. He was a man with an obsession. So were you once. You know who his buddies are, who he hunted with. Speak to them. If there's any milk been spilt, I trust you to get it back into the bottle. You're his executor, George. Tidy him up. Keep us out of it. And don't wander.
The General: I speak to you as your father's comrade in arms. As his general. His friend. Do you hear me? You arrive in Hamburg Wednesday morning. Understood?
[Villem says nothing]
The General: I said, understood?
Villem Craven: Vladi, I am sorry, I am English. I don't want. No! Positively!
The General: [grabbing the steering wheel] GET THIS THING OFF THE ROAD!
[the lorry lurches off to the side of the road]
Villem Craven: You're crazy!
The General: [grabbing Villem's collar] Have you forgotten how the Russian monster raped out country? The deportations? The murders? The camps? Our best men, executed. Your father, one of them? Have you forgotten that, to your disgrace? You listen to me. In the making of history, God uses some very strange and inappropriate creatures. YOU are going to be one of them, yes?
Villem Craven: Yes.
The General: Repeat!
Villem Craven: Yes.

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