It's not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.

I just finished reading the Koran, and there's nothing in there I didn't hear in Sunday school.

Once you stop believing in Santa Claus, the whole world just goes downhill.

Keep at it! The one talent that's indispensable to a writer is persistence. You must write the book, else there is no book. It will not finish itself. Do not try to commit art. Just tell the damned story.

There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it's not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.

Probably what pushed the Russians over the edge was SDI... They realized they couldn't beat us...

There is more to military units than hardware. There is the character of the unit's personnel: their strengths, experience, and knowledge, their ability to get along and work together amid the horrors of the battlefield. There is an almost undefinable quality. That quality is the Marine Corps' secret weapon. Their edge. That quality is their ethos.