Ian Fleming Quotes

The difference between a good golf shot and a bad one is the same as the difference between a beautiful and a plain woman
a matter of millimetres.

AS, TWO weeks later, James Bond awoke in his room at the Hotel Splendide, some of this history passed through his mind.

In his particular line of business, peace had reigned for nearly a year. And peace was killing him.

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success

Don't lose faith in your stars.

Tears of forlornness and self-pity welled out of his eyes.

'Those who deserve to die, he paused, 'die the death they deserve' - Mr Big

A few hundred yards ahead a Michelin post showed where a small parochial road crossed with the highway.

He could not just wear a watch. It had to be a Rolex.

Hm,' said Bond. 'Bogeyman stuff.

Men want a woman whom they can turn on and off like a light switch.

Never job backwards. What might have been was a waste of time.

Loneliness becomes a lover, solitude a darling sin.

A scar had been beaten into his mind which would only heal by experience.

Bond awoke in his own room at dawn and for a time he lay and stroked his memories.

The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead.

the deep voice held a hint of

For the first time since his capture, fear came to Bond and crawled up his spine.

Those who deserve to die, die the death they deserve.

must say that I think we can accept

The bitch is dead now.

Diamonds are forever.

I should spend the money quickly, Commander Bond.

It's just that I'd rather die of drink than of thirst.

ALTHOUGH HE had not got to bed until two, Bond walked into his headquarters punctually at ten the next morning.

Like all harsh, cold men, he was easily tipped over into sentiment.

A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle.

The World Is Not Enough

All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken.It was his sweet brutality against my bruised body that made his act of love so piercingly wonderful.

Bond smelt the smell of danger.

Once a King, always a King. But once a Knight is enough!

me. They found me. The

Mania, my dear Mister Bond, is as priceless as genius. Dissipation

A woman can put up with almost anything; anything but indifference.

Prohibition is the trigger of crime.

Head of S., thought Bond. They're certainly giving me the red carpet treatment.

Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.

Slowly the red dawn broke over the endless plain of black grass that gradually turned to the famous Kentucky blue as the sun ironed out the shadows.

And people with obsessions, reflected Bond, were blind to danger.

Look my friend, I've got to commit a murder tonight. Not you. Me. So be a good chap and stuff it, would you?

Never say 'no' to adventures.

In angry protest the red telephone splintered the silence.

Garch a har?" -Oddjob, Goldfinger

The gain to the winner is always less than the loss to the loser.

Where am I?' he asked and was surprised that his voice sounded firm and clear.

He asked nothing better than to kill an Englishman. He had accounts to settle with the bastards.

Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad. Bond

It reads better than it lives

Even the highest tree has an axe waiting at its foot.

Most marriages don't add two people together. They subtract one from the other.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

She has black hair, blue eyes, and splendid ... er ... protuberances. Back and front,' he added.

Why not make it for always?

Clean-shaven and dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires.

Unfortunately most ways of making big money take a long time. By the time one has made the money one is too old to enjoy it.

Each dark conjecture came and for a moment settled like a vulture on Bond's shoulder and croaked into his ear that he had been a blind fool.

I always make it a rule never to look back. Otherwise, I'd ask myself how I could write such piffle and live with myself, day after day.

Everyone has the revolver of resignation in his pocket.

Darling, the bath's absolutely right. Will you marry me?'
She snorted. 'You need a slave, not a wife.

Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people and that most of them seemed to come from Texas.

If I wait for the genius to come, it just doesn't arrive.

Everything I write has a precedent in truth.

A woman should be an illusion.

Outside the bus the smell of sulphur hit Bond with sickening force. It was a horrible smell, from somewhere down in the stomach of the world.

Oh, it's all been such a lark.

Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action'.

I'm not in the Shakespeare stakes. I have no ambition.

He suddenly dropped his bantering tone and looked at Bond sharply and venomously.

The stars winked down their cryptic morse and he had no key to their cipher.

You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face

The safe, empty room sneered at him.

His headache was still sitting over his right eye as if it had been nailed there.

And then one day when you're playing your little game you'll suddenly find yourself pinned down like a butterfly.

I don't regard James Bond precisely as a hero, but at least he does get on and do his duty, in an extremely corny way.

Bond didn't defend the practice. He simply maintained that the more effort and ingenuity you put into gambling, the more you took out.

James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death.

He's not a bad guy really, except he's so crooked, you shake hands with him you better count your fingers afterwards.

I do believe I'm tight,' she said, 'how disgraceful. Please, James, don't be ashamed of me. I did so want to be gay. And I am gay.

Benzedrine,' he said. 'I rang up my secretary before dinner and asked her to wangle some out of the surgery at Headquarters.

Shooting hell out of a piece of cardboard doesn't prove anything' was his single-line introduction to the Small-arms Defence Manual.

At gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck.

Champagne and Benzedrine! Never again.

Bond looked at the beautiful day and smiled. And no man, not even Mr. Big, would have liked the expression on his face.

They want us dead,' said Bond calmly. 'So we have to stay alive.

Miss Moneypenny would have been desirable but for eyes which were cool and direct and quizzical.

You are about to awake when you dream that you are dreaming.

Never send a man where you can send a bullet.

power is the goal of all ambition,

If one could be right every hand, none of us would be here,' he said philosophically.

I am a poet in deeds--not often in words.

Bond sat down and looked across into the tranquil, lined sailor's face that he loved, honoured and obeyed.

Danger, like a third man, was standing in the room.

Never say 'no' to adventures. Always say 'yes,' otherwise you'll lead a very dull life.

In his mind he fingered the necklace of the days to come.

I'm looking for Commander James Bond, not an overgrown stunt man. [on meeting Sean Connery]

The double 0 numerals signify an agent who has killed and who is privileged to kill on active service.

Older women are best, because they always think they may be doing it for the last time.

Our prisons are full of people who think they're Napoleon..or God.

Worry is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due.

He says that courage is a capital sum reduced by expenditure.