Speak your dialogue out loud. If it sounds like the way people talk, then write it down.
The KGB still killed people, the KGB would not execute its last prisoner until the final days of its existence in 1991, but by the eighties a termination required paperwork and signatures and a post-action review.
There is a long and honorable tradition of citizens in service to their nation that goes back at least as far as Cincinnatus, the Roman citizen who, more than once answered his country’s call, then returned to his farm and his family and his work.
Fighting wars is not so much about killing people as it is about finding things out. The more you know, the more likely you are to win a battle.
There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.
Wars are begun by frightened men. They fear war, but more than that, they fear what will happen if they don’t start one or take equivalent action, I suppose.
People, I am actually fairly smart. Why has this not occurred to anyone? The information is all out there, if you go looking for it, and the classified stuff just comes from analyzing the unclassified stuff and connecting the dots...
Things rarely happen for a single reason. Even the cleverest and most skilled manipulators recognize that their real art lies in making use of that which they cannot predict.
She didn’t strike me as a “crossword in ink” kind of girl.
I understand why we do that now. It’s a help, not a threat. It’s something to remind you how important words are. Ideas are important. Principles are important. Words are important. Your word is the most important of all. Your word is who you are.
Most things in here don’t react well to bullets.
Probably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI. They realized they couldn’t beat us.
Once you stop believing in Santa Claus, the whole world just goes downhill.
In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them. They tried to classify everything.
Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if “X” happened? That’s how you start.
Books and movies are different art forms with different rules. And because of that, they never translate exactly.
There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it’s not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.
Remember, for every shot you fire, someone, somewhere, is making money.
To Ronald Wilson Regan, The Fortieth President of The United States: The Man Who Won The War.
Even true believers had consciences, Too bad.