And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.

you can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth; if you don't care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send guys to war, they come home talking dirty.

A giddy feeling, in a way, except there was the dreamy edge of impossibility to it - like running a dead-end maze - no way out - it couldn't come to a happy conclusion and yet I was doing it anyway because it was all I could think of to do.

I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.

Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones - THAT kind of love.

If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care for the truth.

Writing doesn’t get easier with experience. The more you know, the harder it is to write.