Farewell John le Carré: British cold war thrillers author dies at 89

"Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen."

British author and the writer of the above quote, David John Moore Cornwell, popularly known by his pen name John le Carré, died on Sunday in England. The best-selling author of espionage novels was 89.

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Born in 1931 in England, John's literary career is based on writing about the conflict between the West and the Soviet Union. The writer first published his work in 1961, Call for the Dead, and second in 1962, A Murder of Quality, both of which are mystery fiction featuring retired spy George Smiley.

John became an international best-seller for his third novel - The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which was published in 1963. It continues to remain one of his best-known works.

Other successful books by John are The Looking Glass War, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People, The Constant Gardener, The Night Manager, The Little Drummer, The Tailor of Panama, A Most Wanted Man, and Our Kind of Traitor - his last published work.

In an interview with BBC Radio Solent, earlier this year, John said that he was still writing.

All of John's novels were adapted either for film, television, and even radio programmes. Many of John's novels were made for television series by the BBC. John was awarded Doctor of Letters from the University of Bath in 1998, and later by the University of Oxford in 2012.

In 2008, The Times ranked him on 22nd on its list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Earlier this year, John won the Olof Palme Prize.

Here's what fans on Twitter had to say about the legend: