Tom Clancy > Quotes

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

“The only way to do all the things you'd like to do is to read”
― Tom Clancy

“Beware the fury of a patient man”
― Tom Clancy

“Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.”
― Tom Clancy

“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.”
― Tom Clancy

“Courage is being the only only one who knows how terrified you are.”
― Tom Clancy, Red Rabbit

“Nothing is as real as a dream. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.”
― Tom Clancy

“The point of life was to press on, to do the best you can, to make the world a better place.”
― Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger

“Colleges typically did not tell you that ninety percent of your education came after you hung the parchment on the wall. People might ask for a rebate.”
― Tom Clancy, The Teeth of the Tiger

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

“It is a principle of diplomacy that one must know something of the truth in order to lie convincingly.”
― Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

“Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world. ”
― Tom Clancy

“If you want to kick the tiger in his ass you'd better have a plan for dealing with his teeth”
― Tom Clancy, The Teeth of the Tiger

“Remember, for every shot you fire, someone, somewhere, is making money.”
― Tom Clancy

“When you have stopped learning you have begun to die.”
― Tom Clancy

“It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.”
― Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

“Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.”
― Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

“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.”
― Tom Clancy

“There are only two ways we can be beaten: we die or we give up. And we're not giving up.”
― Tom Clancy, Against All Enemies

“(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.”
― Tom Clancy, Red Rabbit

“The nice thing about enemies is you know where they stand. This is not always true of friends."

--General Sergey Voloshin”
― Tom Clancy, Without Remorse

“The noblest of ideas have always been protected by warriors.”
― Tom Clancy, The Sum of All Fears

“The only real difference between a wise man and a fool, Moore knew, was that the wise man tended to make more serious mistakes—and only because no one trusted a fool with really crucial decisions; only the wise had the opportunity to lose battles, or nations.”
― Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger

“Time is something that fills the empty spaces of life”
― Tom Clancy

“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.”
― Tom Clancy, Clear and Present Danger

“Surviving is much more painful than death.”
― Tom Clancy, Command Authority

“An overnight success is ten years in the making.”
― Tom Clancy, Dead or Alive

“You learn to write the same way you learn to play golf... You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work.”
― Tom Clancy

“Most things in here don't react well to bullets.”
― Tom Clancy

“Even true believers had consciences, Too bad.”
― Tom Clancy