Karl Marlantes Quotes

Quotes about:

• War is society's dirty work, usually done by kids cleaning up failures perpetrated by adults.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Dirty, Kids

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.127, Atlantic Books Ltd

  49 Copy quote

• When the peace treaty is signed, the war isn't over for the veterans, or the family. It's just starting.

  Karl Marlantes

  Veterans Day, War, Starting

  "A war hero returns home, 40 years later" By John Blake, www.cnn.com. April 9, 2012.

  21 Copy quote

• It was all absurd, without reason or meaning. People who didn't know each other were going to kill each other over a hill none of them cared about

  Karl Marlantes

  People, Hills, Reason

  Karl Marlantes (2010). “Matterhorn”, p.185, Atlantic Books Ltd

  14 Copy quote

• Vietnam was the first time that Americans of different races had to depend on each other. In the Second World War, they were segregated; it was in Vietnam that American integration happened in the military - and it wasn't easy.

  Karl Marlantes

  Military, War, Race

  10 Copy quote

• The Marine Corps taught me how to kill, but it didn't teach me how to deal with killing.

  Karl Marlantes

  Marine, Taught, Killing

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.13, Atlantic Books Ltd

  8 Copy quote

• It won't hurt you. It's just to kill plants. It's called Agent Orange...and it won't bother humans.

  Karl Marlantes

  Hurt, Orange, Agents

  12 Copy quote

• Quitting is unthinkable and pain is just weakness leaving the body

  Karl Marlantes

  Pain, Leaving, Weakness

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.21, Atlantic Books Ltd

  4 Copy quote

• Once we recognize our shadow's existence we must resist the enticing step of going with its flow.

  Karl Marlantes

  Shadow, Flow, Steps

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.55, Atlantic Books Ltd

  7 Copy quote

• I don't want any romantics to go into the military. I'm not a pacifist. I think we need a military, and the better one we have, the better off we are. I don't want kids going in there thinking that it's John Wayne on Iwo Jima. That's not healthy.

  Karl Marlantes

  Military, Kids, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing to eat. Was that evil? And ants? They killed. No, the jungle wasn’t evil. It was indifferent. So, too, was the world. Evil, then, must be the negation of something man had added to the world. Ultimately, it was caring about something that made the world liable to evil. Caring. And then the caring gets torn asunder. Everybody dies, but not everybody cares.

  Karl Marlantes

  Caring, Men, Evil

  Karl Marlantes (2010). “Matterhorn”, p.264, Atlantic Books Ltd

  8 Copy quote

• Victory in combat is like sex with a prostitute. For a moment you forget everything in the sudden physical rush, but then you have to pay your money to the woman showing you the door. You see the dirt on the walls and your sorry image in the mirror.

  Karl Marlantes

  Sex, Wall, Sorry

  9 Copy quote

• I mean... if you're raised as a decent human being, killing somebody is against every moral thing you've ever been taught. And so, generally, in combat it's 'krauts,' the 'gooks,' the 'yanks' - whatever you want to do to try and make it so that it's not a human being.

  Karl Marlantes

  Mean, Trying, Want

  7 Copy quote

• Everything is touched by the holy when it is in the presence of death.

  Karl Marlantes

  Holy, Touched

  7 Copy quote

• We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique.

  Karl Marlantes

  Zero, Unique, Special

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.114, Atlantic Books Ltd

  16 Copy quote

• We mistakenly assume that bodily survival has a higher precedence than ego survival. This is simply not generally true. Ego will happily destroy the body for its own sake. Look at overweight executives headed for heart attacks on the way to getting their pictures in Fortune or anorexic models suffering slow starvation on their way to getting their pictures in Vogue. Protecting ego is the general case.

  Karl Marlantes

  Heart, Ego, Survival

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like to Go to War”, p.65, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• I knew many Marines had done brave deeds that no one saw and for which they got no medals at all. I was having a very hard time carrying those medals and didnt have the insight or maturity to know what to do with my combination of guilt and pride.

  Karl Marlantes

  Pride, Marine, Maturity

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.115, Atlantic Books Ltd

  4 Copy quote

• Matterhorn is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Vietnam, Metaphor

  "A Vietnam Epic Uncovers Old Wounds: An Interview with Karl Marlantes". Interview with Evan James, www.motherjones.com. April 30, 2010.

  59 Copy quote

• For every veteran who goes through a divorce, a wife goes through one, too. For every veteran alone in the basement, there is a wife upstairs, bewildered, isolated and in despair from the dark clouds of war that hangs over family life.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Divorce, Dark

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like to Go to War”, p.193, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• This nation should be less worried about putting the Vietnam syndrome behind us than restarting the World War II victory syndrome that resulted in the Vietnam syndrome in the first place.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Victory, Vietnam

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.66, Atlantic Books Ltd

  4 Copy quote

• I mean, if you're proud of what you've done when you've served in the military, well then we call that bragging. And if you are unhappy about what happened, we call that complaining. And so what are you going to do?

  Karl Marlantes

  Military, Mean, Unhappy

  "'Matterhorn' Author On What It's Like 'To Go To War'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. August 30, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• He ran as he'd never run before, with neither hope nor despair. He ran because the world was divided into opposites and his side had already been chosen for him, his only choice being whether or not to play his part with heart and courage. He ran because fate had placed him in a position of responsibility and he had accepted the burden. He ran because his self-respect required it. He ran because he loved his friends and this was the only thing he could do to end the madness that was killing and maiming them.

  Karl Marlantes

  Love, Running, Heart

  4 Copy quote

• In the military I could exercise the power of being automatically respected because of the medals on my chest, not because I had done anything right at the moment to earn that respect. This is pretty nice. It's also a psychological trap that can stop one's growth and allow one to get away with just plain bad behavior.

  Karl Marlantes

  Military, Nice, Exercise

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like to Go to War”, p.131, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• When I first got back from the war, I said, 'I'm gonna write the Great American Novel about the Vietnam War.' So I sat down and wrote 1,700 pages of sheer psychotherapy drivel. It was first person, and there would be pages about wet socks and cold feet.

  Karl Marlantes

  War, Writing, Feet

  "A Vietnam Epic Uncovers Old Wounds: An Interview with Karl Marlantes". Interview with Evan James, www.motherjones.com. April 30, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• The time for debilitating fear is before and after the mission.

  Karl Marlantes

  Before And After, Missions

  Karl Marlantes (2011). “What It Is Like To Go To War”, p.35, Atlantic Books Ltd

  4 Copy quote

• And I think that it's - the military has actually made improvements, so people are considering post-traumatic stress disorder as, at the least, a possible psychological problem. You know, when I was in Vietnam, it was just considered malingering. And we're making progress.

  Karl Marlantes

  Military, Stress, Thinking

  "'Matterhorn' Author On What It's Like 'To Go To War'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. August 30, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

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