You learn to write the same way you learn to play golf... You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isnโt divinely inspired โ itโs hard work.
Tom ClancyThe most wounding insult to an educated Russian was to be called nekulturny-uncultured-yet the same men who sat in the gilt boxes at the Moscow State Opera weeping at the end of a performance of Boris Gudunov could immediately turn around and order the execution or imprisonment of a hundred men without blinking. A strange people, made more strange by their political philosophy.
Tom ClancyBeing a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.
Tom ClancyWhen I go to peoples' houses I like to sneak into their bedrooms and try on their underwear.
Tom ClancyThere is more to military units than hardware. There is the character of the unit's personnel: their strengths, experience, and knowledge, their ability to get along and work together amid the horrors of the battlefield. There is an almost undefinable quality. That quality is the Marine Corps' secret weapon. Their edge. That quality is their ethos.
Tom Clancy