Tom Clancy Quotes

If you want to tell me I'm a bum, that's okay.

Even true believers had consciences, Too bad.

Civilians listened to officers, which said a lot about the intelligence of civilians.

A field commander never has the information he needs. He has to go with his best hunch. The more information he has, the easier it is for him to win the battle.

Clifford Rutledge II was the perfect diplomat. He believed in little beyond his own career, some vague notions of international amity, and his personal ability to make it come about and to avoid war through the sheer force of his brilliance.

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

We sink ships and try to pretend that they’re just ships — things without people in them. It’s dishonest, but we do it anyway.

Our tools keep getting better, and as a result of that, our lives keep getting better.

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.

The thing you have to understand about fighter pilots is they never quite grow past the stage of little boys buzzing past girls on their bicycles.

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

"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 question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start."

The drafters of the Constitution had made one simple but far-reaching error. They'd assumed that the people selected by The People to manage the nation would be as honest and honorable as they'd been. One could almost hear the "Oops!" emanating from all those old graves. The people who'd drafted the Constitution had sat in a room dominated by George Washington himself, and whatever honor they'd lacked he'd probably provided from his own abundant supply, just by sitting there and looking at them. The current Congress had no such mentor/living god to take George's place, and more was the pity, Ryan thought.

When you have stopped learning you have begun to die.

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 had to be followed up on as potential espionage cues. Russians, on the other hand, were too orderly by nature to make such distractions appear natural.