When a problem threatens to engulf you, there's nothing like irrelevant detail to keep your head above water.

The one thing you can bet is that spying is never over. Spying is like the wiring in this building: It's just a question of who takes it over and switches on the lights. It will go on and on and on.

In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job.

Elections are a Western jerk-off.

Sometimes we have to do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions, not answers.

And the ideologies trailed after these impossible events like condemned prisoners, as ideologies do when they've had their day. Because they have no heart of their own. They're the whores and angels of our striving selves.

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.