Tom clancy quotes

There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.

Suspense is achieved by information control: What you know. What the reader knows. What the characters know.

I am a politician which means I am a liar and a crook. When I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollypops.

I haven't got any fan mail from Osama bin Laden. I have no reason to believe he reads my stuff I'll never decide for commercial reasons to put something in that endangers our national security. You just can't do that.

Even true believers had consciences, Too bad.

There are only two ways we can be beaten: we die or we give up. And we're not giving up.

The good old days are now.

Ice hockey is the closest thing to religion permitted by the Soviet Union.

Every person you meet - and everything you do in life - is an opportunity to learn something.

Books and movies are different art forms with different rules. And because of that, they never translate exactly.

About forty percent of the people vote Democrat. About forty percent vote Republican. Of those eighty percent, most wouldn't change their votes if Adolf Hitler was running against Abe Lincoln - or against FDR. . . . That leaves twenty percent of the people who swing back one way or another . . . the true independents. . . . That twenty percent controls the destiny of the country.

You learn to write the same way you learn to play golf... You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work.

The most wounding insult to an educated Russian was to be called nekulturny-uncultured-yet the same men who sat in the gilt boxes at the Moscow State Opera weeping at the end of a performance of Boris Gudunov could immediately turn around and order the execution or imprisonment of a hundred men without blinking. A strange people, made more strange by their political philosophy.

And so began something that had not quite begun and would not soon end, with many people in many places moving off in directions and on missions which they all mistakenly thought they understood. That was just as well. The future was too fearful for contemplation, and beyond the expected, illusory finish lines were things fated by the decisions made this morning -- and, once decided, best unseen.

There is more to military units than hardware. There is the character of the unit's personnel: their strengths, experience, and knowledge, their ability to get along and work together amid the horrors of the battlefield. There is an almost undefinable quality. That quality is the Marine Corps' secret weapon. Their edge. That quality is their ethos.

It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.

I'm a spy. It's not really... I worked for the CIA 15 years. The cover was I worked for the insurance business.

An overnight success is ten years in the making.

Helicopters don't fly, they vibrate so badly the ground rejects them.

I've made up stuff that's turned out to be real, that's the spooky part.

The difference between me and you is that I do good fiction.

The only person who has artistic control is the director, and 'director' is how you spell God in Hollywood.

Bill Clinton is a man who thinks international affairs means dating a girl from out of town.

Colleges typically did not tell you that ninety percent of your education came after you hung the parchment on the wall. People might ask for a rebate.

Privacy and loneliness were the traditional luxuries accorded to a skipper.

Most things in here don't react well to bullets.

I'd rather talk to people who do things than complain about other people who do things. I say they're idiots.

I wanted to see my name on the cover of a book. If your name is in the Library of Congress, you're immortal.

There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it's not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.

The tactics...no, amateurs discuss tactics,.... Professional soldiers study logistics.

Fighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.

America is the most inventive country in the world. Why? Because everybody has access to information. In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them.

There is a long and honorable tradition of citizens in service to their nation that goes back at least as far as Cincinnatus, the Roman citizen who, more than once answered his country's call, then returned to his farm and his family and his work.

Whenever somebody comes up with a good idea, there's somebody else who has never had a good idea in his life who stands up and says, "Oh, you can't do that..."

Courage is being the only only one who knows how terrified you are.

All field agents have some cowboy in them – even the ones from New York.

It's not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.

Victory comes only to those prepared to make it, and take it.

Well, It's a Communist country, and the Communists do not reward personal initiative...except by execution.

We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try.

People, I am actually fairly smart. Why has this not occurred to anyone? The information is all out there, if you go looking for it, and the classified stuff just comes from analyzing the unclassified stuff and connecting the dots.

I think about the characters I've created and then I sit down and start typing and see what they will do. There's a lot of subconscious thought that goes on. It amazes me to find out, a few chapters later, why I put someone in a certain place when I did. It's spooky.

Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.

(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.

I think it's an intellectual duty for a person who lives in a free society to read material not only with which you agree, but with which you disagree. Because every so often somebody you think is wrong will actually turn out to be right.

A lawyer is just like an attack dog, only without a conscience.

Surviving is much more painful than death.

The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they're protecting us.

Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.

Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change about you, but your dream will not. It will always be your link with the person, young and full of hope. If you hold on to it you may grow old but you will never be old. And that is the ultimate success

It is a principle of diplomacy that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.

Switzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun.

If you don't write the book, the book ain't gonna get written.

Probably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI... They realized they couldn't beat us...

Life was such a strange thing, so permanent when one had it, so fleeting when it was lost- and those who lost it could never tell you what it was like, could they?

Washington D.C. is about 300 square miles surrounded by realty.

If a hero must have an unmarked grave, it should at least be close to where his comrades fell." "Comrades?" "One way or another we all fight for the things we believe in. Doesn't that give us some common ground?

The KGB still killed people, the KGB would not execute its last prisoner until the final days of its existence in 1991, but by the eighties a termination required paperwork and signatures and a post-action review.

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.

Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.

My life is a very simple life thank you

I've been telling people for 12 years that if you want to get a nuclear device into the United States, just bring it through the port of Miami disguised as cocaine.

Jack looked out the window as they passed the Mormon temple, just outside the beltway near Connecticut Avenue. A decidedly odd-looking building, it had grandeur with its marble columns and gilt spires. The beliefs represented by that impressive structure seemed curious to Ryan, a lifelong Catholic, but the people who held them were honest and hardworking, and fiercely loyal to their country, because they believed in what America stood for.

Speak your dialogue out loud. If it sounds like the way people talk, then write it down.

The smaller the mind, the greater the ego.

Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him?

I don't discuss works in progress.

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

Civilians listened to officers, which said a lot about the intelligence of civilians.

Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.

Giving your book to Hollywood is like turning your daughter over to a pimp.

Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.

When I go to peoples' houses I like to sneak into their bedrooms and try on their underwear.

Wars are begun by frightened men.

Keep at it! The one talent that's indispensable to a writer is persistence. You must write the book, else there is no book. It will not finish itself. Do not try to commit art. Just tell the damned story.

Once you stop believing in Santa Claus, the whole world just goes downhill.

The Only way to do all the things you'd like to do is to read

Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.

They fought their first action in March of 1775. Embarked on eight small ships, they sailed to the Bahamas and captured a British fort near Nassau, seizing gunpowder and supplies. Later, during the Revolutionary War, Marines fought several engagements in their distinctive green coats, such as helping George Washington to cross the Delaware River, and assisting John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard to capture the British frigate Serapis during their famous sea fight.

Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.

Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.

Sunday was the normal day for the political awareness session at sea. Ordinarily Putin would have officiated, reading some Pravada editorials, followed by selected quotations from the works of Lenin and a discussion of the lessons to be learned from the readings. It is very much like a church service.

If you want to kick the tiger in his ass you'd better have a plan for dealing with his teeth

There is an old saying: In history nothing is true but the names and dates. In fiction everything is true but the names and dates. The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.

What do I know about sex? I’m a married man.

Success will ruin your life.

Anti-Catholicism is the last respectable prejudice. You can't hate black people anymore, of course, and you can't hate homosexuals anymore, but you can hate all the Catholics you want.

There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.

People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?

When you have stopped learning you have begun to die.

The Good of the People was a laudable enough goal, but in denying a man's soul, an enduring part of his being, Marxism stripped away the foundation of human dignity and individual value. It also cast aside the objective measure of justice and ethics which, he decided, was the principal legacy of religion to civilized life.

Learn to write the same way you learn to play golf. You do it and keep doing it until you get it right.

The point of life was to press on, to do the best you can, to make the world a better place.

Liberation and equal-rights issues notwithstanding, it was a man's job to make a woman feel cherished and respected.

The human condition today is better than it's ever been, and technology is one of the reasons for that.

In battle, you forgive a man anything except an unwillingness to take risks. Sometimes you have to put it on the line.

I just finished reading the Koran, and there's nothing in there I didn't hear in Sunday school.

For over two weeks, the defenders of Wake Island held off a vastly superior force of Japanese ships and troops, inspiring the whole nation with their plucky spirit and sacrifice. Unfortunately, Navy leaders at Pearl Harbor, struggling to protect what was left of the shattered Pacific Fleet, canceled a relief mission, allowing the island and its defenders to fall without support. Wake damaged the long-standing trust between the Corps and the Navy, a memory that still rankles Marines and shames sailors.

The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.

Remember, for every shot you fire, someone, somewhere, is making money.

Wars are begun by frightened men. They fear war, but more than that, they fear what will happen if they don't start one or take equivalent action, I suppose.

Morituri non cognant, perhaps. Those who are about to die — just don't know.

In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them. They tried to classify everything.

I write strictly for fun... as long as it stays fun I'll continue to do it.

I understand why we do that now. It’s a help, not a threat. It’s something to remind you how important words are. Ideas are important. Principles are important. Words are important. Your word is the most important of all. Your word is who you are.

To Ronald Wilson Regan, The Fortieth President of The United States: The Man Who Won The War.

I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

There are people in government who don't want other people to know what they know. It's just another example of elitism. And I spit on elitism. Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

That's the ultimate pornography. There's nothing more pornographic than glorifying war.

She didn't strike me as a "crossword in ink" kind of girl

I was one of the first generations to watch television. TV exposes people to news, to information, to knowledge, to entertainment. How is it bad?

Things rarely happen for a single reason. Even the cleverest and most skilled manipulators recognize that their real art lies in making use of that which they cannot predict.

The general difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals like pretty pictures and conservatives like to build bridges that people can drive across.

Christ, how did you ever get this screwed up! his mind demanded of him. He knew the answer, but even that was not a full explanation. Different segments of the organism called John Terrance Kelly knew different parts of the whole story, but somehow they'd never all come together, leaving the separate fragments of what had ...once been a tough, smart, decisive and to blunder about in confusion - and despair! There was a happy thought.

Back in pre-Revolutionary America cruel and unusual punishment meant the rack and burning at the stake... in more recent rulings it has been taken to mean the absence of cable television and denial of sex-change operations, or just overcrowding in the prisons.

Collaboration on a book is the ultimate unnatural act.

"Literature" is written material that, 100 years after the death of the author, is forced upon high school students.

The only real difference between a wise man and a fool, Moore knew, was that the wise man tended to make more serious mistakes—and only because no one trusted a fool with really crucial decisions; only the wise had the opportunity to lose battles, or nations.

What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.

No matter what you or anyone else does, there will be someone who says that there's something bad about it.

Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not... Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it... Because the dream is within you. No one can take your dream away.

One thing about flying that he never got used to was that no matter how awful the weather was on the ground, if you flew high enough you could always find the sun.

The first rumors about Zenith came from the Czechoslovakians.

Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.