Quote

'Undertones of War' by Edmund Blunden seems to get less attention than the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves, but it is a great book.

Anyone who's traveled with me to Afghanistan knows why I love this book: 'War,' by Sebastian Junger.

My assignment was in the communications office, where I typed out dispatches.

I'm interested in wartime stories, as I think it's important to remember what the soldiers went through.

My dad was a big admirer of Sergeant York stories from the First World War.

All these stories are grist to the mill of the government because they build up a very useful war psychosis.

There are these moments in the military where you're present at these enormous intersections of history and humanity. I came out of the end of that, and I just wanted to write. If you do it well, you know it will last. It can't get blown away like everything else.

I'm fascinated by the period that goes from the Industrial Revolution to right after World War II. There's something about that period that's epic and tragic.

I can't envision an honest war novel that left war in a positive light.