>> le carré: no. it. and-- and i think you find that with most people-- who've been in that world. it is simply anathema. >> kroft: whatever david cornwell's duties were, john le carreÉ found time to write a novel about a washed-up spy named alec leamas, who is sent on a dangerous mission across the wall and betrayed by his bosses. >> le carré: my memory is that i wrote it very fast, the story. but i had no idea where i was going at first. and it just flowed. and i think you get a break like that once in your writing life. i, i really believe-- nothing else came to me so naturally, so fast. >> kroft: you had to show it to... >> le carré: i then showed it to my department. and there was a bit of a loud silence. and then, actually, as was a kind of sporting decency almost, my-- my service said, "okay, go ahead and publish it." but i think they had no idea, any more than i did, that it would become a sensation. >> kroft: "the spy who came in from the cold" was the publishing event of 1963. the book spent