How could you get mad at someone who neither needed to attack nor was at all worried about being able to defend? It was like getting mad at Switzerland.

Everything is touched by the holy when it is in the presence of death.

Really important books to me are the classics. I try very hard to read them well - you know, especially once I got serious about writing.

Vietnam was the first time that Americans of different races had to depend on each other. In the Second World War, they were segregated; it was in Vietnam that American integration happened in the military - and it wasn't easy.

When the peace treaty is signed, the war isn't over for the veterans, or the family. It's just starting.

In the military I could exercise the power of being automatically respected because of the medals on my chest, not because I had done anything right at the moment to earn that respect. This is pretty nice. It's also a psychological trap that can stop one's growth and allow one to get away with just plain bad behavior.

It won't hurt you. It's just to kill plants. It's called Agent Orange...and it won't bother humans.