Unless you can be in a place yourself and go through the subject of your story yourself, the next best thing is not to read a book about it, or see a movie about it, it's to talk to the people who've been there.
Michael MorpurgoWherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart.
Michael MorpurgoBut just as soon as this war's over and finished with,I'll get back home and marry her.I've grown up with her, Joey, known her all my life. S'pose I know her almost as well as I know myself, and I like her a lot better.
Michael MorpurgoI tell you, my friends,โ he said one day. โI tell you that I am the only sane man in the regiment. Itโs the others that are mad, but they donโt know it. They fight a war and they donโt know what for. Isnโt that crazy? How can one man kill another and not really know the reason why he does it, except that the other man wears a different colour uniform and speaks a different language? And itโs me they call mad!
Michael Morpurgo