“I will always hate war, but will be forever proud of mine.”

“Evan no longer tells people I fight bad guys for a living. When asked, he tells his friends that his dad talks on the phone a lot and vacuums on occasion.”

“Evan stares at me.I try to hug him. He takes a step back. I pause, my heart in my throat. Ive got to reach out to him, let myself be vulnerable. I find the courage, but he backs up again.You cant g...”

“I am a Christian, but my time in Iraq has convinced me that God doesn't want to hear from me anymore. I've done things that He can never forgive. I've done them consciously. I've made decisions I m...”

“Are you okay, man?""Yeah, I'm good."It's a lie. I wonder if I will ever be good again.”

“A cavalryman's horse should be smarter than he is. But the horse must never be alowed to know this.”

“Above all, he loathed men who beat women; for, real men didnt exercise their strength on frail creatures, they joined the army and put Shazarias enemies in their graves.”

“Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?”

“work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”

“He had a charm about him sometimes, a warmth that was irresistible, like sunshine. He planted Saffy triumphantly on the pavement, opened the taxi door, slung in his bag, gave a huge film-star wave,...”

“He promised us that everything would be okay. I was a child, but I knew that everything would not be okay. That did not make my father a liar. It made him my father.”

“1. I think what haunts many people in the world is to lose something they love, something they value, and someone they care for, for me it was my father, I was losing him when I met him. I felt lif...”