I talk to cryptographers, some of the leading technologists in the world, all the time about how we can deal with these issues. It is not possible to create a back door that is only accessible, for example, to the FBI.

Ever since I've been here [in Russia], my life has been consumed with work that's actually fulfilling and satisfying.

Do we want to emulate China in the way that China emulates the West? I think, for most Americans, the answer to that question would be no.

If I and other whistleblowers are sentenced to long years in prison without so much as a chance to explain our motivations to a jury, it will have a deeply chilling effect on future whistleblowers working as I did to expose government abuse and overreach. It will chill speech. It will corrode the quality of our democracy.

I've been watching The Wire recently.

The big tech companies understood that the government had not only damaged American principles, it had hurt their businesses.

I don't go out and play football and stuff - that's not me. I want to think, I want to build, I want to talk, I want to create.