Quotes from Tom Clancy

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.

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

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.

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?

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?

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

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

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

Nothing is as real as a dream. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

When you have stopped learning you have begun to 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.

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

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.

The nice thing about enemies is you know where they stand. This is not always true of friends." --General Sergey Voloshin

The noblest of ideas have always been protected by warriors.