From a 1992 letter written by John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell) to Philip Roth, sent after le Carré read a draft of Roth’s Operation Shylock. The letter is included in A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, which was published in December by Viking.

Dear Philip,

Congratulations! What else can I say? What other use can I be, than to tell you what you know—that you have moved, embarrassed, entertained, and maddened me, driven me through a city of lights at dead of night at breakneck speed, perplexed me, summoned my anti-Semitic self from his contented…