After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power - the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government - for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism.

I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.

You can't come up against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk.

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.

I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA. I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it.

I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.

I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is.

My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago.