I'd been in college studying English creative writing and history when I made the decision to join the Marines in the runup to the Iraq war.

Next quotes

• Phil Klay:

  I was a public affairs officer. I worked with the media, but I didn't just stay at my desk. I assis

• Phil Klay:

  I saw so many radically different versions of Iraq. It would have been difficult for me to come bac

• Phil Klay:

  Sometimes macho language is to mask things people are not ready to deal with.

• Phil Klay:

  One thing I've always liked about the military is there's a certain amount of pragmatism.

• Phil Klay:

  I doubt there's anything you could say to Donald Rumsfeld that would puncture the armor of his narc

• Phil Klay:

  It's a professional military. You sign up and agree to allow your countrymen to use your life as th

• Phil Klay:

  I started with things that I was troubled by or confused by or interested in, and then I wrote stor

• Phil Klay:

  Marines and soldiers don't issue themselves orders; they don't send themselves overseas. United Sta

• Phil Klay:

  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are as much every U.S. citizen's wars as they are the veterans' wa

• Phil Klay:

  A lot of times, you're interacting with people for whom you're one of the very few veterans that th