Someone once said that a minesweeper makes only two mistakes: the first is when he decides to be one. The second …

We didn’t believe in tomorrow. We we couldn’t forget what had happened yesterday.

When you live next to death ... you don't think about it anymore, you just try to encounter it as seldom as possible.

By 1989, the total number of Vietnam veterans who had died in violent accidents or by suicide after the war exceeded the total number of American soldiers who died during the war.

Once, back home, I decided to count how many days out of my twenty months in Afghanistan I’d been on combat missions. 217 days. And I’m still paying the price for every one of those days.

There's nothing I can do to erase the shadow of misery and despair from the eyes looking back at me from the photos [that I took in Afghanistan].

[On one of his comrades depicted in the book:]"Sasha was my friend … Like me, he was 19. But he didn't come home. He was killed 12 hours after this photo was taken.

…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.

We have our own language. Christianese... We don't say 'He's out of his mind, ' no, we say 'That's our youth pastor.

Art is an other door to IMAGINATION. And without imagination nothing is possible.

How would you like your eggs?" I tried. I really did. But I glanced at his crotch and it came out anyway. "Fertilized?

An autumn garden has a sadness when the sun is not shining.

Success by the laws of competition signifies a victory over others by obtaining the direction and profits of their work. This is the real source of all great riches.

I'm a firm believer that there are no rules in art. Every trajectory is different.

Most of us recognize how important it is to listen respectfully when our loved ones are talking; but we often forget that it is equally important to talk respectfully when they are listening.

I tried to talk to Annabeth, but she was acting like I'd just punched her grandmother.

Compassion directed toward oneself is true humility.