I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?

A reversal is just anything that's a surprise. It's a way of keeping the audience interested.

Everyone I know who used to be in the intelligence community is moving into the corporate world.

Ambiguity depletes as your budget rises.

You have to know human behaviour … And the quality of your writing is absolutely capped at your understanding of human behaviour. You’ll never write above what you know about people.

The people in the Philippines are so extraordinarily nice.

No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.

Different people work different ways.

Fear changes everything. We're animals, and when we get afraid we act like animals. I'm not exempt from that.

I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.

I like knowing where I am in action sequences if I'm supposed to.

A lot of people get so hung up on what they can't have that they don't think for a second about whether they really want it.

I love hanging out at home with my kid. It's hard to get me to leave the house.

I don't wish to embarrass anyone.

On the basis of my historical experience, I fully believe that mathematics of the 25th century will be as different from that of today as the latter is from that of the 16th century.

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

We pretend we have it all. We pretend we can have it all.

I can understand someone not liking the voice or the songs.

I'm just a socialist at heart.

Glass breaks so easily. No matter how careful you are.

Ben was really a contrarian but he didn't use those terms because he was really buying value.