"It came down to this: if I hadnt been arrested by the Turkish police, I would have been arrested by the Greek police. I had no choice but to do what this man Harper told me. He was entirely responsible for what happened to me."
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books written with Charles Rodda.
"Let us hope the bad times are ended for good," [said Mr. Tan.] "Good business for one is good business for all," said Girija. "Very true." Now, Mr. Tan decided, they were coming to the point. Reference to mutual advantage was the accepted preliminary to a squeeze."
Eric Ambler"Never tell a lie when you can bullshit your way through."
Eric Ambler"[W]hat use is an honest lawyer when what you need is a dishonest one?"
Eric Ambler"The important thing to know about an assassination or an attempted assassination is not who fired the shot, but who paid for the bullet."
Eric Ambler"Hallett drew a deep breath. "Mr. Nilson," he said, "I wish you could tell me something. Why is it that when an apparently normal, intelligent, law-abiding citizen like you gets hold of a passport and a steamship ticket, he suddenly turns into a juvenile--" "Okay, Mr. Hallett," Greg broke in irritably. "You cant say anything I havent already said to myself."
Eric Ambler"Nicki, my wife, was off in Romania somewhere on a three-week tour with the rest of the troupe. She is an exotic dancer, and if anyone wants to know how it was that a man my age, still vigorous but admittedly a bit the worse for wear, came to have a Greek woman twenty years his junior for a wife, they must ask her. [...] A man is entitled to seek consolation, and an attractive woman is entitled to look for protection. I always handled her business affairs or her, and when she was in a good mood she called me "papa." I may add that Nicki worked because she liked to work, not because I made her do so. I took no commission. She was completely free to come and go as she pleased, and with whom she pleased. I asked no questions. I have regretted our enforced separation very deeply. I went through her things to see if there was anything I could sell."
Eric Ambler