“He'd say "I love you" to every man in the squad before rolling out, say it straight, with no joking or smart-ass lilt and no warbly Christian smarm in it either, just that brisk declaration like he was tightening the… — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“Billy nods and turns to the window. He knows he will never see Faison again, but how can he know? How does anyone ever know anything—the past is a fog that breathes out ghost after ghost, the present a freeway… — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“The singing triggers a soft detonation at his core, molten parts of him are flying everywhere and his ears ring to the tune of… — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“Even harder was describing his sense that Shroom’s death might have ruined him for anything else, because when he died? when I felt his soul pass through me? I loved him so much right then, I don’t think I can ever have that kind of love for anybody again. So what was the point of getting married, having kids, raising… — Ben Fountain Copy Share
“Without ever exactly putting his mind to it, he's come to believe that loss is standard trajectory. Something new appears in the world—a baby, say, or a car or a house, or an individual shows some special talent—with luck and huge expenditures of soul and effort you might keep the project stoked for a while, but eventually, ultimately, it's going… — Ben Fountain Copy Share
“But I am scared. Everybody's scared." "You know what I mean, like scared scared. Like coward scared, like if you never went to begin with. But with everything you've done nobody's going to doubt you." Then she made a somewhat frantic speech about a website she found that listed how certain people had avoided Vietnam. Cheney, Four education deferments, then… — Ben Fountain Copy Share
“God knows the war sucks, but he sees no great appeal in these tepid peacetime lives.” — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“What he'd like to say is that he's lived it, if not the entire breadth and depth of the Christian faith then certainly the… — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
By the end of the first decade of writing, I considered myself a confirmed failure in the eyes of the world. — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
I started publishing stories in small magazines early on, but after seven or eight or nine years you feel like you need a little… — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“I think sometimes nothing is better than something. I mean, I’d rather have nothing than let this guy use me like his bitch.” — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“No it was my choice. It's what I wanted to do. And I knew they'd probably send me to Iraq. It's not like anybody lied to me." She groans. "Billy, all these mofos ever do is lie. You think if they halfway told the truth we'd even be in a fucking war? You know what I think, I think we… — Ben Fountain Copy Share
It's amazing what happens when you stick yourself in a place and let things take their more or less natural course. — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
“As if sorrow is the true reality? Without ever putting his mind to it, he's come to believe that loss is the standard trajectory.” — Ben Fountain Copy Share Image
