Eye of the Needle Quotes

“The trouble with being inspired to perform the impossible was that the inspiration gave you no clues to the practical means.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“War was grueling and oppressive and frustrating and uncomfortable, but one had friends. If peace brought back loneliness, Godliman thought he would not be able to live with it.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Our whole strategy must be to prevent the Allies from securing a beachhead, because once they achieve that, the battle is lost…perhaps even the war.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“There was something terribly thrilling in watching the elements spit and sway and roar in fury, in standing fractionally too close to the cliff edge, feeling threatened and safe at the same time, shivering with cold and perspiring in fear. It was thrilling, and there were few thrills in her life.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Most spies were amateurs: frustrated revolutionaries of the left or right, people who wanted the imaginary glamour of espionage, greedy men or lovesick women or blackmail victims. The few professionals were very dangerous indeed; they were not merciful men.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Blenkinsop sighed. "As usual, those of you who can think of better ways to win the war are invited to write directly to Mr. Winston Churchill, number 10 Downing Street, London South-West-One. Now, are there any questions, as opposed to stupid criticisms?”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“his ability to do crosswords in English—it was the acid test of fluency in a foreign language.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Around most of its coast the cliffs rise out of the cold sea without the courtesy of a beach. Angered by this rudeness the waves pound on the rock in impotent rage: a ten-thousand-year fit of bad temper that the island ignores with impunity.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“She had wanted cities, music, people, ideas. Now the desire for those things had left her, and she could not understand how she had ever wanted them. Peace was all a human being ought to ask for, it seemed to her.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Villages in the English countryside were cut off by the snow,”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“She picked up a pebble, drew back her arm, and threw it out to sea with all her might. She did not see or hear it land; it might have gone on forever, circling the earth like a satellite in a space story.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“She wasn’t a sex-starved tart; she was a love-starved wife.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“But almost everybody smoked in wartime Britain, even some of the women. Well, they were doing men’s jobs—they were entitled to masculine vices.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“a cartoon looking for a caption.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“He was permanently bad-tempered”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“He was”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Faber had a room on the top floor with a dormer window. He lived there from Monday to Friday, and told Mrs. Garden that he spent weekends with his mother in Erith. In fact, he had another landlady in Blackheath, who called him Mr. Baker and believed he was a traveling salesman for a stationery manufacturer and spent all week on the road.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Kincaid said, “Come in, Captain. How did you get so wet? You shouldn’t go out in the rain.” “Fuck off,” the captain said, bringing delighted expressions to the other faces in the room.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“He may have met the U-boat before the storm”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Aveva desiderato eccitazioni, città, musica, gente, idee. Ora il desiderio di quelle cose l’aveva abbandonata, e non riusciva a comprendere come le avesse tanto agognate. Le sembrò che la pace fosse tutto quello che un essere umano avrebbe dovuto chiedere.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“the bride was like her mother. Her hair was a dark, dark red, long and thick, shining and glorious, and she had wide-apart amber eyes set in an oval face; and when she looked at the vicar with that clear, direct gaze and said ‘I will’ in that firm, clear voice, the vicar was startled and thought, ‘By God she means it!”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Kent no hay aeropuerto. Hay uno en”
― Ken Follett, La isla de las tormentas

“This is a hard place. Only hard things survive here: hard rock, coarse grass, tough sheep, savage birds, sturdy houses and strong men. It is for places like this that the word “bleak” has been invented.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Peace was all a human being ought to ask for, it seemed to her.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Seguir con lo que se está haciendo usualmente parece un sacrificio, pero casi nunca lo es.”
― Ken Follett, La isla de las tormentas

“Naturalmente, no había tal ejército. Los barcos eran de goma y madera, las trincheras no más reales que las de un estudio de filmación. Patton no tenía un solo hombre bajo sus órdenes. Los cables intercambiados no llevaban mensaje alguno y los espías alemanes trabajaban para Inglaterra. El objetivo era engañar al enemigo para que se preparara a ser invadido por el paso de Calais, de modo que el ataque a Normandía tuviera el día D la ventaja de la sorpresa.”
― Ken Follett, La isla de las tormentas

“She opened her eyes again once, before she died, and said, “You’ll have to win the war without me, kiddo.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle

“Bloggs.”
― Ken Follett, La isla de las tormentas

“I haven’t had the opportunity to discover the merits of monogamy.”
― Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle