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… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
Really important books to me are the classics. I try very hard to read them well - you know, especially once I got serious about writing. So, reading Tolstoy several times - 'War and Peace,' 'The Kreutzer Sonata' - all… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
“Emotion constricted Hawke’s throat. He suddenly understood why the victims of concentration camps had walked quietly to the gas chambers. In the face of… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time, unable to… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
“We have an idea of what is right or wrong. And we can debate moral issues as ideas. But moral *standards* are not ideas;… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
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… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
Everything is touched by the holy when it is in the presence of death. — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
In the military I could exercise the power of being automatically respected because of the medals on my chest, not because I had done… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
Once we recognize our shadow's existence we must resist the enticing step of going with its flow. — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
“Many will argue that there is nothing remotely spiritual in combat. Consider this. Mystical or religious experiences have four common components: constant awareness of… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
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… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
“But just below the grim tranquility he had learned to display, he cursed with boiling intensity the ambitious men who used him and his… — Karl Marlantes Copy Share Image
