Completing a book, it's a little like having a baby.

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.

It's easy to forget what intelligence consists of: luck and speculation. Here and there a windfall, here and there a scoop.

Luck's just another word for destiny... either you make your own or you're screwed.

It was a charming fantasy of romantics that the spies would stop spying, that political conflict would end and politicians would tell the truth. Unfortunately that has not been the case.

It's death, that's what I'm suffering from. The systematic encroachment of the big D.

Those who are not with Mr. Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because I'm dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddam's downfall -- just not on Bush's terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.