Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[from trailer]
Easterhase: [to Smiley] Things aren't always what they seem.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[from trailer]
George Smiley: Now is the time.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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?

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Connie Sachs: [Smiley offers her whiskey] Not supposed to, doctor's orders.
Connie Sachs: [smiles] Wicked, wicked George.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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!

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
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 café?
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.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Karla: Do you know this woman?
[She smiles. Prisoner shakes head. Karla shoots her]
Karla: Tell Alleline what we did.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Jim Prideaux: I tried to hold out as long as I could. Did any make it out?
George Smiley: No, they were blown.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

George Smiley: [his first line in the movie] I'm retired now, Oliver. You fired me!

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[from trailer]
George Smiley: What did you think of Control's theory?
Jim Prideaux: I thought it was madness!

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

[first lines]
Control: [opening door] You weren't followed?
Jim Prideaux: No.
Control: Better come in.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Sign: DO NOT UNPLUG.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Oliver Lacon: [furiously buttering toast]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Ricki Tarr: [jumps at a butcher's cleaver slamming down]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

KGB Agent: [calmly knitting]
Jim Prideaux: [Voice over, he's in headphones, forced to listen to recorded screams] For two weeks they worked me over.