Our country regularly uses military force, but only a fraction of Americans serve in the military. This means fewer and fewer people have a direct li…

- Phil Klay

I think in America, especially today, our relationship to war is incredible distant. Yet narratives of war have such a primal power in this culture. …

- Phil Klay

There are two ways to tell the story. Funny or sad. Guys like it funny, with lots of gore and a grin on your face when you get to the end. Girls like…

- Phil Klay

Fiction is a place where people can meet, where they take the time to very seriously examine and think about the experiences of other people and abou…

- Phil Klay

Veteran art creates a meeting place between veterans and civilians, or simply between veterans with different experiences.

- Phil Klay

It's not so much the question that offends me; it's that the people asking it don't seem to respect the moral seriousness of the question.

- Phil Klay

Part of the reason I'm writing it is to try to figure out what that is myself. It's not like I came back from Iraq and said, "We need to have a conve…

- Phil Klay

Fiction offered me tools that allowed me to approach a wider variety of issues than the events of my own life would.

- Phil Klay

And that was my homecoming. It was fine, I guess. Getting back feels like your first breath after nearly drowning. Even if it hurts, it's good.

- Phil Klay