I'd never talked about it, ... I'd left the Marine Corps when I was 22 ... and I really left.

228

I think I learned something more about that history of mine, ... There's a, you know, young kid who had been changed by the Marine Corps but could also retain some of his humanity, some of his personality, and that was confirmed for me.

223

He was quoting me, to me, and he could name a scene and a page number. He convinced me that he knew the story and that he cared for the story and that he cared for me and the other men who had served with me.

183

I was a guy, sitting alone in a room in Portland, just wanting to tell people what it's like to be in a war, even if it lasts just four days. Especially if it lasts just four days.

179

We watched 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Full Metal Jacket' before we went to war. It was pornography for us. They opened up this historical and psychological narrative. This is what men do when they go to war, we thought. It's a received image of war through film.

157

I never saw it as a political book, ... I wanted to open up a world that people might not know anything about. It's up to the people who go to this movie to decide how they feel about it, just like it's their job as Americans to decide how they feel about the war. We're asking the viewer to take responsibility for how they feel.

146

He taught me how to read as a writer.

133

In the Company of Soldiers.

114