Tom Clancy Quotes

There are people in government who don't want other people to know what they know. It's just another example of elitism. And I spit on elitism. Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser.

Helicopters don't fly, they vibrate so badly the ground rejects them.

The good old days are now.

Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.

The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.

The tactics...no, amateurs discuss tactics,.... Professional soldiers study logistics.

What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.

Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

Whenever somebody comes up with a good idea, there's somebody else who has never had a good idea in his life who stands up and says, "Oh, you can't do that..."

The smaller the mind, the greater the ego.

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

Switzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun.

In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them. They tried to classify everything.

People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?

A lawyer is just like an attack dog, only without a conscience.

Washington D.C. is about 300 square miles surrounded by realty.

I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

I am a politician which means I am a liar and a crook. When I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollypops.

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

Collaboration on a book is the ultimate unnatural act.

The only way to do all the things you'd like to do is to read

Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.

I was one of the first generations to watch television. TV exposes people to news, to information, to knowledge, to entertainment. How is it bad?

There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.

I wanted to see my name on the cover of a book. If your name is in the Library of Congress, you're immortal.

In battle, you forgive a man anything except an unwillingness to take risks. Sometimes you have to put it on the line.

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

Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him?

I've made up stuff that's turned out to be real, that's the spooky part.

Victory comes only to those prepared to make it, and take it.

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.

No matter what you or anyone else does, there will be someone who says that there's something bad about it.

Colleges typically did not tell you that ninety percent of your education came after you hung the parchment on the wall. People might ask for a rebate.

Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.

Wars are begun by frightened men.

We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try.

Probably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI... They realized they couldn't beat us...

The point of life was to press on, to do the best you can, to make the world a better place.

Most things in here don't react well to bullets.

Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.

Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.

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

Morituri non cognant, perhaps. Those who are about to die — just don't know.

(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.

Once you stop believing in Santa Claus, the whole world just goes downhill.

Ice hockey is the closest thing to religion permitted by the Soviet Union.

Courage is being the only only one who knows how terrified you are.

I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.

Books and movies are different art forms with different rules. And because of that, they never translate exactly.