"Any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to…"

"A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth. For example: Four gu…"

"I survived, but it's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."

"To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true."

"For example, we've all heard this one. Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes …"

"You were a treasonous pussy if you had second thoughts about killing and dying for plain and simple reasons."

"Intellect had run up against emotion. My conscience told me to run, yet some irrational and powerful force was resist…"

"Right then, with the shore so close, I understood that I would not do what I should do. I would not swim away from my…"

"I would go to the war — I would kill and maybe die — because I was embarrassed not to. That was the sad thing. And so…"

"There were times in my life when I couldn't feel much, not sadness or pity or passion, and somehow I blamed this plac…"