When I first got back from the war, I said, 'I'm gonna write the Great American Novel about the Vietnam War.' So I sat down and wrote 1,700 pages of sheer psychotherapy drivel. It was first person, and there would be pages about wet socks and cold feet.

Once we recognize our shadow's existence we must resist the enticing step of going with its flow.

War is society's dirty work, usually done by kids cleaning up failures perpetrated by adults.

The time for debilitating fear is before and after the mission.

I knew many Marines had done brave deeds that no one saw and for which they got no medals at all. I was having a very hard time carrying those medals and didnt have the insight or maturity to know what to do with my combination of guilt and pride.

Matterhorn is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again.

Cynicism is no more mature than naïveté. You're no more mature, just more burned.