I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making.

It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

The only reward for love is the experience of loving.

Let's all pretend to be someone else, and then perhaps we'll find out who we are.

I think the greatest single enemy is the misuse of information, the perversion of truth in the hands of terribly skillful people.

The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.

I used to think it was clever to confuse comedy with tragedy. Now I wish I could distinguish them.

Blackmail is more effective than bribery.

A spy, like a writer, lives outside the mainstream population. He steals his experience through bribes and reconstructs it.

I turn my back on him as he goes, and settle myself in the parlor, and touch Ma's piano.My fingers leave sighsin the dust.

Don't make a deal with the devil.

Worrying about things you can't control is a waste both on the baseball field and in life.

Learning by doing, peer-to-peer teaching, and computer simulation are all part of the same equation.

Surfing is like golf: You're always battling, and it keeps knocking you down. There are a lot of wipeouts. But when you stay with it and catch that wave, you really taste it. It's magic.

A gun is not a weapon! It's a tool, like a butcher's knife, or a harpoon, or an alligator.

The child is an inner possibility, the possibility of renewal.

I wrote poems and an essay about that weird language. We still remember it to a certain extent, and it still comes up when we're all together. It's so fundamental to how I think.

The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day.

Peace is not made with friends. Peace is made with enemies.