Barry Eisler Quotes

• If you focus on the risks, they'll multiply in your mind and eventually paralyze you. You want to focus on the task, instead, on doing what needs to be done.

  Barry Eisler

  Focus, Risk, Mind

  45 Copy quote

• I wandered the earth a mercenary, daring the gods to kill me but surviving because part of me was already dead.

  Barry Eisler

  Earth, Daring, Kill Me

  16 Copy quote

• Anger, and the self-righteousness that is both the cause and consequence of anger, tends to be easier on the psyche than personal responsibility.

  Barry Eisler

  Responsibility, Self, Causes

  "Fictional Politics" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 29, 2010.

  19 Copy quote

• The two most important things to do for self-defense are not to take a martial arts class or get a gun, but to think like the opposition and know where you're most at risk.

  Barry Eisler

  Art, Gun, Thinking

  "After the CIA, Barry Eisler writes thrillers" by Carolyne Zinko, www.sfgate.com. July 25, 2010.

  7 Copy quote

• I make a good living selling hardback books through paper publishers and I have many friends in the industry who will suffer as it changes, so on a personal level the transition to digital isn't something I welcome wholeheartedly.

  Barry Eisler

  Book, Suffering, Transition

  "Paper Earthworks and Digital Tides" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 24, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• The job of the screenplay is to identify and extract the essence of the story from the novel and reconfigure it for the screen, maintaining its essence in a different vehicle.

  Barry Eisler

  Jobs, Essence, Different

  4 Copy quote

• I can understand the allure of a venerable Big Six imprint, of a shot at the New York Times list, of a publisher-sponsored book tour, of seeing your hardbacks in bookstores and your paperbacks in supermarkets.

  Barry Eisler

  New York, Book, Lists

  4 Copy quote

• I love Japan, and Tokyo is my favorite city.

  Barry Eisler

  Japan, Cities, Tokyo

  6 Copy quote

• The post office actually achieves its mission. I wish we could say the same of the CIA.

  Barry Eisler

  Office, Wish, Achieve

  "After the CIA, Barry Eisler writes thrillers". Interview with Carolyne Zinko, www.sfgate.com. July 25, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• If the reader cares, I dont think it matters so much whether your hero is in fact an anti-hero.

  Barry Eisler

  Hero, Thinking, Care

  5 Copy quote

• I have a long-standing interest in what I like to think of as "forbidden knowledge": methods of unarmed killing, lock picking, breaking and entry, spy stuff, and other things that the government wants only a few select individuals to know.

  Barry Eisler

  Thinking, Government, Long

  "For Barry Eisler, when it rains, it pours". Interview with Mark Schreiber, www.japantimes.co.jp. September 7, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

• It would be awesome to be so impressive that we could sway people to our way of thinking just by declaiming our thoughts, but probably most of us lack such gravitas. Luckily, there's something even better: evidence, logic, and argument.

  Barry Eisler

  Thinking, People, Would Be

  "How to Argue (VIDEO)" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 15, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• Overall, one of the things that excites me most about self-publishing is that the highest-value use of my time in promoting the books will be found in writing more of them.

  Barry Eisler

  Book, Writing, Self

  "Barry Eisler Explains Self-Publishing Decision". Interview with Jason Pinter, www.thedailybeast.com. March 24, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• The movie is someone else's art. But it's great marketing for books.

  Barry Eisler

  Art, Book, Marketing

  4 Copy quote

• After I sold my screenplay adaptation of 'Rain Fall' to Sony Pictures, I had no more creative involvement.

  Barry Eisler

  Rain, Fall, Creative

  4 Copy quote

• From the outside, the CIA seems pretty exotic, but from the inside, it's a big bureaucratic place. Think 'post office with spies.'

  Barry Eisler

  Thinking, Office, Spy

  4 Copy quote

• The City. Can't you hear it? People. Machines. Even thoughts so thick your bones feel it and your ear almost catches it.

  Barry Eisler

  Cities, People, Machines

  4 Copy quote

• Publishing for me is a business, not an ideology.

  Barry Eisler

  Ideology, Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• When I wrote my eighth thriller, Inside Out, in 2009, the villains were a group of CIA and other government officials who colluded to destroy a series of tapes depicting Americans torturing war-on-terror prisoners.

  Barry Eisler

  War, Government, Groups

  "Interrogators Speak Out: Why Not a Torture Turing Test?" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 30, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isnt really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, but anyone who wants to be at least competent at argument can do it.

  Barry Eisler

  Quality, Want, Argument

  4 Copy quote

• Paper publishers are doing everything they can to slow the transition to eBooks because, in a digital world, paper publishers' high hardback margins essentially disappear.

  Barry Eisler

  Transition, World, Paper

  "Paper Earthworks and Digital Tides" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 24, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• The National Surveillance State doesn't want anyone to be able to communicate without the authorities being able to monitor that communication.

  Barry Eisler

  Communication, Surveillance State, Want

  "David Miranda and the Preclusion of Privacy" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 24, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

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