“This, she realizes, is the basis of all fear. That a light you are powerless to stop will turn on you and usher a bullet to its mark.”

“When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?”

“I am only alive because I have not yet died.”

“What the war did to dreamers.”

“War is a bazaar where lives are traded like any other commodity: chocolate or bullets or parachute silk.”

“One night he sits up. In cots around him are a few dozen sick or wounded. A warm September wind pours across the countryside and sets the walls of the tent rippling.Werners head swivels lightly on ...”

“In river rescues, members of the Kansas City Fire Department rescue squad yell profanity-laced threats at victims before they get to them. If they don't, the victim will grab on to them and push th...”

“When it was too late for rescue, it was still early enough for revenge.”

“Worst rescue ever.”

“Suffering is when we resist the moment.”

“I believe in the magic and authority of words.”

“And we, from the whole of our life experience there, have concluded that there is only one way to withstand violence: with firmness.”

“War is what happens when language fails.”

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

“The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”