I've certainly thought a lot more about things like tyranny and patriotism and violence. I think I found some kind of clarity - definitely a thicker understanding.

And that was my homecoming. It was fine, I guess. Getting back feels like your first breath after nearly drowning. Even if it hurts, it's good.

War is too strange to be processed alone.

Veteran art creates a meeting place between veterans and civilians, or simply between veterans with different experiences.

It's not so much the question that offends me; it's that the people asking it don't seem to respect the moral seriousness of the question.

Writing fiction means putting a lot of what you believe about the world at risk, because you have to follow your characters.

Fiction offered me tools that allowed me to approach a wider variety of issues than the events of my own life would.

If you're going to write about war, the ugly side is inevitable. Suffering and death are obviously part of war.

If I say, “I am weak, ” I ensure that I stay weak. If I say, “I cannot, ” “I’m not the type to, ” “I am not able, ” then I set up a self-fulfilling prophecy. As I think of myself, so I shall be.

Disappointment and failure are not signs that God has forsaken you or stopped loving you. The devil wants you to believe God no longer loves you, but it isn’t true. God’s love for us never fails.

When the adversaries of Erasmus had got the Trinity into his edition, they threw by their manuscript as an old almanac out of date.

I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

When you are down and out, find something or someone to love.

It's the way you look whenever she mentions her fiance. My cat looks like that before he hacks up a hairball.

I decided to always sing in the back with the chorus and never went up front because I had trouble performing.

There's a snake lurking in the grass.

But I can't listen to music too often. It affects your nerves, makes you want to say stupid, nice things, and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell.

Between extremities Man runs his course; A brand, or flaming breath, Comes to destroy All those antinomies Of day and night.