What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.
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.
Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.
I think it’s an intellectual duty for a person who lives in a free society to read material not only with which you agree, but with which you disagree. Because every so often somebody you think is wrong will actually turn out to be right.
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 difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.
Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one’s own governing philosophy.
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.
Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.
I know I’m paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
The point of life was to press on, to do the best you can, to make the world a better place.
I am a politician which means I am a liar and a crook. When I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollypops.
No matter what you or anyone else does, there will be someone who says that there’s something bad about it.
In battle, you forgive a man anything except an unwillingness to take risks. Sometimes you have to put it on the line.
Victory comes only to those prepared to make it, and take it.
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 been telling people for 12 years that if you want to get a nuclear device into the United States, just bring it through the port of Miami disguised as cocaine.
The difference between me and you is that I do good fiction.