“If I haven't done badly, it's because I've become indispensable to too many like David Abbott. I have in my head a thousand facts they couldn't possibly recall. It's simply easier for them to place me where the questions are, where problems need solutions. (Alfred Gillette)”

“How gratifying to be there when arrogance collapses. How much more so to be the instrument. (Alfred Gillette)”

“I loathe him. He stands for everything I hate in Washington. The right schools, houses in Georgetown, farms in Virginia, quiet meetings at their clubs. They've got their tight little world and you don't break in--they run it all. The bastards. The superior, self-inflated gentry of Washington. They use other men's intellects, other men's work, wrapping it all into decisions bearing their imprimaturs. And if you're on the outside, you become part of that amorphous entity, a 'damn fine staff.' (Alfred Gillette)”

“Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd.”

“The success of any trap lies in its fundamental simplicity. The reverse trap by the nature of its single complication must be swift and simpler still.”

“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.”

“He wasn't smart enough to see it, said Jason Bourne. He couldn't think geometrically.”