I understood that 'The Yellow Birds' would be a peculiar representation of the experience of being at war. I intended it to be so.

To understand the world, one’s place in it, is to be always at the risk of drowning.

There is a sharp distinction between what is remembered, what is told and what is true.

I can't envision an honest war novel that left war in a positive light.

My personal opinion is that if someone writes honestly about war, it will inherently be anti-war.

It's not just: you get off the plane, you're back home, everything's fine. Maybe the physical danger ends, but soldiers are still deeply at risk of being injured in a different way.

All choices are illusions, or if they are not illusions their strength is illusory, for one choice must contend with the choices of all the other men and women deciding anything in that moment.

As human beings, we have the blessing and the curse that we're able to adapt to almost anything. No matter how extreme the circumstances you're in, they become normal.

Freedom is not the same as lack of accountability.

Joining the military is not to be taken lightly. You're putting every part of yourself at risk, not just your body but your moral and spiritual centre.

Writing was always an aspiration, but I'd kept it a secret even from myself.

In one-act pieces there should be only rubbish - that is their strength.

I love to prove people wrong. They expect I'll sound a certain way when they see me, then they hear me and they can't believe it. I love that.

Playing USA Softball has been more to me than I ever imagined possible.

I feel like God has forgiven me of so much, that I will forgive everyone who has hurt us

In 2003, I warned of a 'creeping coup' in Russia against the forces of democracy and market capitalism in Russia.

The imagination can be dangerous. It can change the world. And that is why we write.

A real ballerina must fill her space with her own personality.

A man only has a soul to be won or lost.

You cannot acquire the gift of peace if by your anger you destroy the peace of the Lord.

Thus, during those nineteen years of torture and slavery, did this soul rise and fall at the same time. Light entered on the one side, and darkness on the other.