Collecting intelligence information is like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant. You know, in hindsight It's great. The problem is there's a million dots at the time.

The American people must be willing to give up a degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security.

The problem was with Bill Clinton, the scandals and rumored scandals, the incubating ones and the dying ones never ended. Whatever moral compass the president was consulting was leading him in the wrong direction. His closets were full of skeletons just waiting to burst out.

The State Department said the countries that are most stealing our best ideas also are our best allies.

The country was not focused on terrorism before September 11th.

The fraudster's greatest liability is the certainty that the fraud is too clever to be detected.

And I understand that, I testified in closed hearings over eight years because there are intelligence matters, there are sensitive matters that should not be held in a public hearing.

Ask the American public if they want an FBI wiretap and they'll say, no. If you ask them do they want a feature on their phone that helps the FBI find their missing child they'll say, Yes.

My role and my obligation was to conduct criminal investigations.

I wanted all my visits to be official. When I sent the pass back with a note, I had no idea it would antagonize the president. I found out years later that it did.