I haven't got any fan mail from Osama bin Laden. I have no reason to believe he reads my stuff I'll never decide for commercial reasons to put something in that endangers our national security. You just can't do that.

Wars are begun by frightened men.

Suspense is achieved by information control: What you know. What the reader knows. What the characters know.

The smaller the mind, the greater the ego.

It's not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.

There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it's not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.

I think it's an intellectual duty for a person who lives in a free society to read material not only with which you agree, but with which you disagree. Because every so often somebody you think is wrong will actually turn out to be right.