Tom Clancy Quotes

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Tom Clancy

Profession : Novelist

Birth : April 12, 1947

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.

Tom Clancy

Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Your life may change, but your dream doesn't have to. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it.

Tom Clancy

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.

Tom Clancy

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

Tom Clancy

There are two kinds of people: the ones who need to be told, and the ones who figure it out all by themselves.

Tom Clancy

People live longer today than they ever have. They live happier lives, have more knowledge, more information. All this is the result of communications technology. How is any of that bad?

Tom Clancy

Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.

Tom Clancy

The objective of a terrorist is to create political change in the society he targets.

Tom Clancy

Helicopters don't fly, they vibrate so badly the ground rejects them.

Tom Clancy

Ebola is a nasty disease to get. It's scary. But as a weapon, it is probably not likely. Ebola is a difficult malady to weaponize and deliver efficiently.

Tom Clancy

The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they're protecting us.

Tom Clancy

Success will ruin your life.

Tom Clancy

When I was doing 'Executive Orders,' I talked about Ebola to people who know about infectious diseases and their use as weapons of war, and guys told me that these weapons are more psychological than physical.

Tom Clancy

I think about the characters I've created and then I sit down and start typing and see what they will do. There's a lot of subconscious thought that goes on. It amazes me to find out, a few chapters later, why I put someone in a certain place when I did. It's spooky.

Tom Clancy

Wars are begun by frightened men.

Tom Clancy

Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser.

Tom Clancy

I've made up stuff that's turned out to be real, that's the spooky part.

Tom Clancy

What do I know about sex? I'm a married man.

Tom Clancy

Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him?

Tom Clancy

It's not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.

Tom Clancy