Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

Quitting is unthinkable and pain is just weakness leaving the body

— Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

Cynicism is no more mature than naïveté. You're no more mature, just more burned.

— Karl Marlantes

“We all have shit on our shoes. We've just got to realize it so we don't track it into the house.”

— Karl Marlantes

“Thinking you might be crazy can drive you crazy.”

— Karl Marlantes

“Without man there would be no evil. But there was also no good, nothing moral built over the world of fact. Humans…

— Karl Marlantes

“War is society's dirty work, usually done by kids cleaning up some failure on the part of the adults.”

— Karl Marlantes

I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time,…

— Karl Marlantes

“The chanting went on, the musicians giving in to the rhythm of their own being, finding healing in touching that rhythm, and…

— Karl Marlantes

“Meaning came out of living. Meaning could only come from his choices and actions. Meaning was made, not discovered.”

— Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

It was all absurd, without reason or meaning. People who didn't know each other were going to kill each other over a…

— Karl Marlantes

This nation should be less worried about putting the Vietnam syndrome behind us than restarting the World War II victory syndrome that…

— Karl Marlantes

For every veteran who goes through a divorce, a wife goes through one, too. For every veteran alone in the basement, there…

— Karl Marlantes

We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is…

— Karl Marlantes

'The Odyssey' is the great tale, and I was really taken by 'The Iliad,' so I dig into those things, and when…

— Karl Marlantes

I mean... if you're raised as a decent human being, killing somebody is against every moral thing you've ever been taught. And…

— Karl Marlantes

Really important books to me are the classics. I try very hard to read them well - you know, especially once I…

— Karl Marlantes

I don't want any romantics to go into the military. I'm not a pacifist. I think we need a military, and the…

— Karl Marlantes

I knew many Marines had done brave deeds that no one saw and for which they got no medals at all. I…

— Karl Marlantes

Victory in combat is like sex with a prostitute. For a moment you forget everything in the sudden physical rush, but then…

— Karl Marlantes

He ran as he'd never run before, with neither hope nor despair. He ran because the world was divided into opposites and…

— Karl Marlantes

“Mellas knew that Hawke was letting him squirm. Then, without looking up, Hawke said, 'Look, Mellas, in the Navy or Air Force…

— Karl Marlantes

“You know what I do? I lose my heart.” Cortell’s throat suddenly tightened, strangling his words. “I lose my heart.” He took…

— Karl Marlantes

“The fourteen-man snake moved in spasms. . . Their eyes flickered rapidly back and forth as they tried to look in all…

— Karl Marlantes

“But just below the grim tranquility he had learned to display, he cursed with boiling intensity the ambitious men who used him…

— Karl Marlantes

He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing…

— Karl Marlantes

“It is not trivial to lie in a report. . . . At the time I wrote it I actually believed what…

— Karl Marlantes

We mistakenly assume that bodily survival has a higher precedence than ego survival. This is simply not generally true. Ego will happily…

— Karl Marlantes

“Many will argue that there is nothing remotely spiritual in combat. Consider this. Mystical or religious experiences have four common components: constant…

— Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

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

— Karl Marlantes

I grew up in Oregon, where as a teenager I worked with my grandfather Axel on his i shing boat at the…

— Karl Marlantes

'Matterhorn' is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then…

— Karl Marlantes

“Over time, continual bad news will discourage any civilian population, and Americans had the lowest tolerance on the planet for bad news.”

— Karl Marlantes

Really important books to me are the classics. I try very hard to read them well - you know, especially once I…

— Karl Marlantes

He lay before God as a woman opens herself to a man, with legs apart, stomach exposed, arms open. But unlike some…

— Karl Marlantes