“I think we reminded them of what peace was like, we boys of sixteen. We were registered with no draft board, we had taken no physical examinations. No one had ever tested us for hernia or color blindness. Trick knees… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
“We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to preserve. Anyway, they were more indulgent toward us than at any other time; they snapped… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
There are special, strange gifted people in the world and they have to be treated with understanding — John Knowles Copy Share Image
It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
“I saw on the pad not an operator's number from my home town, but one which seemed to interrupt the beating of my heart.” — John Knowles Copy Share Image
“Sixteen is the key and crucial and natural age for a human being to be, and people of all other ages are ranged in… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was converging elsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
My father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
It was hard to remember in the heavy and sensual clarity of these mornings; I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
Exeter was, I suspect, more crucial in my life than in the lives of most members of my class, and conceivably, than in the… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
“He was nodding his head, his jaw tightening and his eyes closed on the tears. “I believe you. It’s okay because I understand and… — John Knowles Copy Share Image
