Jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself or one's community.

Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population.

We need to make sure that leaks of classified information, of national security secrets, needs to be rigorously pursued and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I go to bed at night worrying that I didn't do enough that day to make sure I protect the American people.

The preservation of our national security and the laws that define us as the United States of America demand that we understand the intersection of the two - indeed, how they reinforce one another.

As a former career intelligence professional, I have a profound appreciation for the value of intelligence. Intelligence disrupts terrorist plots and thwarts attacks. Intelligence saves lives.

Is real, it is serious, it is growing, and it constitutes one of the greatest threats to our national security and, indeed, to global security.

How you define a problem shapes how you address it.

When we uphold the rule of law, our counterterrorism tools are more likely to withstand the scrutiny of our courts, our allies, and the American people.

I will not, nor will I ever, publicly divulge sensitive intelligence sources and methods. For when that happens, our national security is endangered and lives can be lost.

We are in this business, whether it be intelligence or the government, to protect freedom, democracy and liberty, not to violate that.

Nature is subtle and complex.

It is impossible to exaggerate the wide, and widening, gulf between the American attitude on the Iraq war and the view from our friends across the Atlantic.

Acting is like going to the gym. You have to keep yourself in shape and concentrate on your core.

Oh, we do not understand death, we never understand it; creatures are only truly dead when everyone else has died who knew them.

I think that there is a certain schizophrenic aspect to my own relation to the Bible.

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes a long time before you notice.

You never get over the fear of writing.

My work is like digging, it's archaeological research among the arid materials of our times. That's how I understand my first films, and that's what I'm still doing...

There's hundreds of different ways of writing songs.

Some people say they want things, but when push comes to shove they don't do what is necessary to achieve it.