I try to be as ruthless as possible. I ask myself of each sentence, "Is it clear? Is it true? Does it feel good?" And if it's not, then I rewrite it.

The sum of a million facts is not the truth.

But there are no loners. No man lives in a void. His every act is conditioned by his time and his society.

He [Gen. Douglas MacArthur] was a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime.

I realized that the worst thing that could happen to me was about to happen to me.

Men do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another. And if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity.

Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great actor playing himself.