On the CIA: “I write often about the CIA and I write about it with some sympathy. I do feel we need a strong intelligence service. The stronger our intelligence service, the less likely we are to get into the kinds of military conflicts that can really hurt the country. … The people who work at the CIA would like the world to understand, to the extent possible, what the hell they do every day.”
On spy novels: “Spy novels that we usually read are so completely unrealistic. The real work isn’t that glamorous. It’s a lot like journalism. It’s a lot of sitting around, waiting. It’s a lot of preparation. It’s the moment of human interaction between one person and the other when you gain that person’s trust and you get that person to tell you things that, initially, he probably wasn’t going to tell you. If I understand the intelligence business at all, it’s because it’s so similar to my business of journalism.”
