Quotes from Katharine Gun

We all need to be conscious of what news we take as gospel. And we need to maybe be a little bit sceptical about what we digest.

I was just wondering if I'd ever get a visa to go to the U.S. Probably not.

I was a housewife, I suppose, and luckily I have a very high boredom threshold.

I worked for GCHQ, which stands for Government Communications Headquarters, and is the equivalent of the NSA here in the U.S.

Working at GCHQ was a relatively easy, reliable job. As long as you always toe the 'party line', you are more or less guaranteed a job for life.

The Official Secrets Act 1989 may need reforming for the digital era, but I would argue that at its heart there should be protection for whistleblowers.

The whole issue of Iraq has left us with a legacy, which is not good. The ripple effect from that initial invasion is continually being felt in worldwide institutions, in the U.S. and the U.K.

The world is moving in a completely fascist, corporate direction. It worries me, it should worry us all.

I know people have tried to make citizens' arrests on Tony Blair and so on, but really it's time the international criminal court has some guts and charges white war criminals. They need to face justice just like other war criminals.

It seems to me that we are living in an increasingly unfree society.

Ironically, becoming known publicly was my biggest fear. And it was partly because I'm on the whole a fairly shy person.

I work for the British people. I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people.

There was this saying in GCHQ that, if you didn't leave after five years, you stay there for life. It was always my intention to leave before five years.

I did not make my disclosure about the deceitful manipulation of the U.N. before the invasion of Iraq began in order to garner fame or fortune.

I think of journalists as being bullet-proof in a way.

When you have the initial GCHQ induction course for new arrivals, they tell you... not to trust journalists, to be careful to keep everything confidential.

I never aligned myself specifically with the anti-war movement.

I've never met Snowden, I've never spoken with him personally. I mean, he's extremely smart. Very, very smart. I guess he was a lot less naive than I was.

What has to be understood is that most whistle-blowers are not natural activists - this one certainly wasn't. We usually work in anonymous jobs, far from the spotlight. We are not campaigners, or journalists, or wannabe celebrities, craving a platform. Our conscience tells us we have to reveal what we know.

All I can say is that you have to live with your conscience at the end of your life, and it's the only thing that you have that belongs to yourself and nobody else.

Truth and accountability were drilled into me as a child.

Most people don't know what goes on in the intelligence services. Certainly I had very little idea what went on in GCHQ. For me it was a job, a chance to use my languages.