I don't think political reform is likely to succeed. [Senators Tom] Udall and [Ron] Wyden, on the intelligence committee, have been sounding the alarm, but they are a minority.

There have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal. Sometimes to do the right thing you have to break the law.

Arguing that you don't care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

Your rights matter, because you never know when you're going to need them.

It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.

I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.

Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped.

Privacy matters; privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.

The US government still has no idea what documents I have because encryption works

We need to think about encryption not as this sort of arcane, black art. It's a basic protection.

Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.

Knowledge makes you strong, wisdom makes you powerful, and love makes you invincible.

Sooner or later, a society of sheep must create a government of wolves.

I always listen to music when I write, I need a rhythm to write.

And any declaration of faith that does not result in a changed life and good works is a false declaration. It is faith alone that justifies. But faith that justifies can never be alone.

No objects of value are worth risking the priceless experience of waking up one more day.

All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage.

Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers.

I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.

The beautiful, passionate, ruined South, the land of magnolias and music, of roses and romance . . . living on the memory of crushing defeats

You can have fun, but you also have to put on your thinking cap every day