The question of whether I, as a whistleblower, should be pardoned, is not for me to answer.

I'm familiar with Andrei Sakharov reputation, but I don't know his personal history at all.

While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice - that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

If an adversary didn't target our power plants but they did target the core routers, the backbones that tie our internet connections together, entire parts of the United States could be cut off. That would have a tremendous impact on us as a society and it would have a policy backlash.

People say that [i'm a celebrity], but I've only had to sign autographs for "civ-libs" types. And I autograph court orders.

I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.

The issue I brought forward most clearly was that of mass surveillance, not of surveillance in general.