Ian Fleming's Quotes

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.

A woman should be an illusion.

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

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

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

As for sex, well, I mean sex is a perfectly respectable subject as far as Shakespeare is concerned. I mean, all history is love and violence.

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

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.

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

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

It was the short men that caused all the trouble in the world.

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

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

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

As a result of 50 years of emancipation, feminine qualities were dying out or being transferred to the males. Pansies of both sexes were everywhere, not yet completely homosexual, but confused not knowing what they were. The result was a herd of unhappy sexual misfits... the women wanting to dominate and the men to be nannied.

I was just on the edge of getting married, and I was frenzied at the prospect of this great step in my life after having been a bachelor for so long. And I really wanted to take my mind off of the agony, and so I decided to sit down and write a book.

One of the bibles of my youth was 'Birds of the West Indies,' by James Bond, a well-known ornithologist, and when I was casting about for a name for my protagonist I thought, 'My God, that's the dullest name I've ever heard,' so I appropriated it. Now the dullest name in the world has become an exciting one.

People do connect me with James Bond simply because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short-sleeved shirts and some of the things that James Bond does, but I certainly haven't got his guts nor his very lively appetites.

This country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date.. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.

Writing about 2,000 words in three hours every morning, 'Casino Royale' dutifully produced itself. I wrote nothing and made no corrections until the book was finished. If I had looked back at what I had written the day before I might have despaired.