Really Important Books To Me Are The

Everything Is Touched By The Holy When It Is In The Presence Of Death.

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 Down And Wrote 1,700 Pages Of Sheer Psychotherapy Drivel. It Was First Person, And There Would Be Pages About Wet Socks And Cold Feet.

We All Want To Be Special, To Stand Out; There's Nothing Wrong With This. The Irony Is That Every Human Being Is Special To Start With, Because We're Unique To Start With. But We Then Go Through Some Sort Of Boot Camp From The Age Of Zero To About 18 Where We Learn Everything We Can About How Not To Be Unique.

In The Military I Could Exercise The Power Of Being Automatically Respected Because Of The Medals On My Chest, Not Because I Had Done Anything Right At The Moment To Earn That Respect. This Is Pretty Nice. It's Also A Psychological Trap That Can Stop One's Growth And Allow One To Get Away With Just Plain Bad Behavior.

I Don't Want Any Romantics To Go Into The Military. I'm Not A Pacifist. I Think We Need A Military, And The Better One We Have, The Better Off We Are. I Don't Want Kids Going In There Thinking That It's John Wayne On Iwo Jima. That's Not Healthy.