The true measurement of a person's worth isn't what they say they believe in, but what they do in defense of those beliefs. If you're not acting on your beliefs, then they probably aren't real.

I was living a charmed life.

The charges [government] brought against me, for example, explicitly denied my ability to make a public-interest defense.

Being a patriot doesn’t mean prioritizing service to government above all else. Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen, from the violations of and encroachments of adversaries. And those adversaries don’t have to be foreign countries.

Are our competitors - for example, China, which is a deeply authoritarian nation - becoming more authoritarian or more liberal over time?

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

I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light.