Each of us, I suppose needs his illusions. Life after death. A maker of planets. A woman to love, a man to hate. Something sacred. But what a waste.

In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a war story nothing is ever absolutely true.

There was the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.

It's a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake. It makes things vivid.

A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.

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

A true war story is never moral.