# Quote — John le Carré, Smiley's People

> Returning, Smiley approached the pavilion through the trees...earnest moral statements enlivened the flaking green paint. "Punk is destructive. Society does not need it." The assertion caused him a moment's indecision. "Oh, but society does," he wanted to reply; "society is an association of minorities."

- Author: [John le Carré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre.md)
- Book: [Smiley's People](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Smiley's_People#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people/returning-smiley-approached

## More from this book

> "It wasn't suicide, Toby," Smiley said, still without a glance at him. "It definitely wasn't suicide. I saw the body, believe me. It wasn't a jealous husband either - not unless he was equipped with a Moscow Centre murder weapon."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people/it-wasnt-suicide.md)

> "Oliver, I wonder if you'd mind finally telling me what I'm doing here," Smiley heard himself suggesting for the third time, hardly above a murmur.
>
> Even then, Lacon dithered, pondered, hunted with his eyes, delayed. In Lacon's world, direct questions were the height of bad taste, but direct answers were worse.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people/oliver-i-wonder.md)

> The drawing-pin was where Mostyn said it was, at head height exactly, in the best Sarratt tradition of regularity, its Circus-issue brass head as new and as unmarked as the boy who had put it there.
>
> Proceed to the rendezvous, it said, no danger sighted.
>
> Moscow Rules, thought Smiley yet again. Moscow, where it could take a fieldman three days to post a letter to a safe address. Moscow, where all minorities are punk.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-le-carre/smileys-people/the-drawing-pin-was.md)