Personal correspondence, 5 February 1983. Published in "Becoming Tom Clancy: Letters from Tom -- Part 1," Pied Type (Oct 2, 2013) http://piedtype.com/2013/10/02/tom-clancy-boy-writer-part-1/ <br class="br">1980s

“Fifteen years ago, there was this country called the Soviet Union that had over 10,000 nuclear warheads pointed at us… they're not there anymore. That's a good thing. And when people talk about how the world is more dangerous now than it was because we had these terrorists running around, my reply is, you know, a terrorist is like a buzzing mosquito. About 15 years ago, there was a great, big vampire bat; that's several orders of magnitude different from a mosquito. So the world is much safer — a lot safer than it was. It's not perfectly safe, but it's a heck of a lot safer than it was.”

Tom Clancy

2000s, Larry King Live (2000)

“I like writing. It's the most fun I've ever had at anything. You can build your own little world and — like a kid with his toy trains, — except instead of trains I have tanks and ships and airplanes and things… I get to make them do all the things I want them to do, and if I don't like the way things work out, I start again.”

Tom Clancy

Interview with Don Swaim (1986)
1980s

“There are things I know I know about I don't write about, which I could not responsibly put into my books. Interestingly enough, though, the scariest one of those things is not classified at all. But nevertheless, I don't write about it, because it would make the world a somewhat more dangerous place.”

Tom Clancy

2000s, Larry King Live (2000)

“These are our kids… They're good kids… Joining the army or the Marine Corps does not make you into a crypto-alcoholic Nazi, it makes you into a child of America who is doing a job for his country… Those are our kids… They're our kids.”

Tom Clancy

2000s, In Depth with Tom Clancy (2002)

“The average guy is smart enough to know the difference between what works and what doesn't, and if you have bad information, sooner or later, you figure it out and you get onto something else.”

Tom Clancy

2000s, Larry King Live (2000)

“To truly feel like we're fighting terrorism, we need as much intelligence and infiltration as possible into known rivals of democracy. Once that information is collected, a sincere commitment must be made to thwart their effects through unified/joint military resolve.”

Tom Clancy

2000s, GameSpy interview

“[…] The image superimposed on Ricci's field of view by his visor display showed a pair of guards in hooded parkas, goggles, and wool scarves taking relaxed strides along their patrol of the building's north side. Their shoulder-slung FN P90 assault weapons fired the same ammunition as his FN Five-seveN pistol: small rounds, big punch. […]”

Tom Clancy

With Jerome Preisler and Martin H. Greenberg; Bio-Strike (2000), p. 405
2000s

“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…”

Tom Clancy

"Clancy Speaks Again, Briefly" (12 February 2000)
2000s

“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.”

Tom Clancy book Debt of Honor

Debt of Honor (1994), ch. 5
1990s

“The hard part is discriminating between factual reporting and journalistic fiction. Last year at the National Press Club I said out loud and in public [C-SPAN was there] that the difference between me and a lot of reporters is that I do good fiction. Some were polite enough to chuckle.”

Tom Clancy

"Clancy Speaks Again, Briefly" (12 February 2000) http://www.clancyfaq.com/Clancy%20Speaks%20Again%20Briefly.htm <br class="br">2000s

“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.”

Tom Clancy

2000s, Kudlow & Cramer interview (2003)

“The difference between me and you is that I do good fiction.”

Tom Clancy

Jokingly to news reporters. Speech at the National Press Club (18 May 1999).
1990s

“"If a hero must have an unmarked grave, it should at least be close to where his comrades fell." "Comrades?" "One way or another we all fight for the things we believe in. Doesn't that give us some common ground?"”

Tom Clancy book The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Jack Ryan and MG Dalmatov, SA; The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), p. 796
1980s