American - Writer | 1983 -
The civilian wants to respect what the veteran has gone through. The veteran wants to protect memories that are painful and sacred to him from outside judgment.
Phil Klay
MemoriesRespectProtectOutsideHim
The notion that war forever separates veterans from the rest of mankind has been long embedded in our collective consciousness.
WarRestLongVeteransConsciousness
The Iraq I returned from was, in my mind, a fairly simple place. By which I mean it had little relationship to reality. It's only with time and the help of smart, empathetic friends willing to pull through many serious conversations that I've been able to learn more about what I witnessed.
RelationshipTimeSimpleSmartMind
If we fetishize trauma as incommunicable, then survivors are trapped - unable to feel truly known by their nonmilitary friends and family.
FamilyFriends And FamilyFriends
In the Marine Corps, you meet this really broad segment of the country; you're working with people from all kinds of backgrounds. And it exposes you to the American military, particularly the American military at war.
WarPeopleAmericanYouMeetKinds
Responsibility and accountability is a big part of being in the military.
ResponsibilityAccountabilityMilitary
People should be able to tell stories that are important to them to try and understand what they mean. I don't think you figure anything out on your own. Certainly not war stories.
WarPeopleThinkYouUnderstandTry
There's a tradition in war writing that the veteran goes over and sees the truth of war and comes back. And I'm skeptical of that.
TruthWarWritingTraditionBack
I think that just because you've been through an experience doesn't make you the ultimate arbiter of what it means. We figure things out; we work things out through the help of other people who can engage with us but also be intelligently critical.
WorkExperiencePeopleThinkHelp
I was studying with Peter Carey, Colum McCann; but also, my fellow students were really critical readers for me.
MeStudyingStudentsCriticalReally
Certainly, when I'd left Iraq back in 2008, I'd been proud of my service, but whether we'd been successful or not was still an open question.
ServiceProudBackQuestionOpen
The Cold War provided justification for a larger peacetime military, since we were never really at peace, or so the argument went.
PeaceWarColdArgumentNever
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Phil Klay quotes