Quotes by Tom Clancy

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

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

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

“Danger confronted properly is not something a man must fear.”

“if you don't write it down, then it never happened”

“If you don't write it down, it never happened.Cathy (& Jack) Ryan”

“I inherited curiosity from my Dad.”

“He had to grow his own NCOs.”

“Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a questi...”

“There are only two ways we can be beaten: we die or we give up. And we're not giving up.”

“To a man, professional soldiers despised terrorists, and each would dream about getting them in an even-up-battle; the idea of the Field of Honor had never died for the real professionals. It was t...”

“The extraneous duties, in a sense, were the job.”

“You couldn't allow yourself to get bored. THAT would be a fight.”

“Clancy comments that the subtleties of national character can impact the world stage by making espionage more difficult. Americans were quirky by nature, making the sorts of eccentric moves that ha...”

“Panic is something that good operations officers plan for.”

“Poor people have poor options. Chavez found the Army almost by accident, and had found it a true open of security and opportunity and fellowship and respect.”

“Courage was not something one picked out of the air. It was something like a bank account. You could withdraw only so much before it was necessary to stop, to take the time to make new deposits.”

“It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.”

“People in the intelligence community are not made to believe in coincidences.”

“Diplomacy "was like a card game. The difference was that you never really knew the value of the cards in your own hand.”