The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how our messages will be received.

A committee is an animal with four back legs.

The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for doing nothing.

Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it.

Once you've lived the inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it. It's a mentality, a double standard of existence.

When you're my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I'd just like to get a few more novels under my belt.

Every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.