Wars tend to be very public things, they are visible. There are correspondents traveling with the troops and you get daily dispatches.

Many years later, a psychiatrist friend of mine said something to us. He said, "Respect denial." It's a powerful force.

There are many instances in which those at the uppermost levels of the White House were feeling the President [Barack Obama] was not fully informed of the flow of events and, in some cases, where policies were going in the White House.

All of the leading terrorism experts are clear on one thing: that in terms of protecting America, we are almost never going to know a place or a time of an attack.

Rapid change, accommodating it can be one of the great human capacities. But living through it can be the stuff of stress and often suffering.

It's exciting to work with the kids so devoid of irony, so unguarded. And also terrifying

Al-Qaeda has a kind of loose, almost entrepreneurial structure with lots of cells in various countries that are semi-independent.