We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try.

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.

Fighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.

There is an old saying: In history nothing is true but the names and dates. In fiction everything is true but the names and dates. The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.

Jack looked out the window as they passed the Mormon temple, just outside the beltway near Connecticut Avenue. A decidedly odd-looking building, it had grandeur with its marble columns and gilt spires. The beliefs represented by that impressive structure seemed curious to Ryan, a lifelong Catholic, but the people who held them were honest and hardworking, and fiercely loyal to their country, because they believed in what America stood for.

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

There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.