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.

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.

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

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

It is hard to remember that you are a cherished spiritual being when you're burping up apple fritters and Cheetos.

I contend that whatever does not raise the moral standard of the church or community has been a revival from God.

The future seems to be in good hands, it's the past I'm worried about.

Women can have all the evidence but they still want the confession.

Light is, perhaps, the most wonderful of all visible things.

Not a lot of people have jobs that they're really comfortable with, but I'm one of those people. I feel like I'm the luckiest girl on earth, and that's such a lovely feeling.

But I don't think of myself as a foreigner or a Frenchman! I just think of myself as a director. Whether I'm French or Australian or whatever, it's really not important.

Oh, high is the price of parenthood, and daughters may cost you double. You dare not forget, as you thought you could, that youth is a plague and a trouble.

Successful villany is called virtue.

The first function of a book review should be, I believe, to give some idea of the contents and character of the book.