Phil Klay
Phil Klay
Phil Klayis an American writer and United States Marine officer who won the National Book Award for fiction in 2014 for his first book-length publication, a collection of short stories, Redeployment...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
bizarre city literally madison people straight strange war york
I literally went straight to New York City from Iraq, which was bizarre and complicated. I was walking down Madison Avenue, and it was spring, and people were smartly dressed, and it was so strange because there was no sense that we were at war. It was something to grapple with.
death obviously side ugly war
If you're going to write about war, the ugly side is inevitable. Suffering and death are obviously part of war.
foreign generally state union
In State of the Union addresses, I always look at the foreign policy and military parts first, which are generally pretty minimal.
good war wrote
I always wrote - not about war, necessarily, but I always wrote stories. I tried to write while I was in Iraq. It's not really - I didn't do a very good job, and not about war.
art different-experiences veteran
Veteran art creates a meeting place between veterans and civilians, or simply between veterans with different experiences.
country military mean
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 link to the military, and yet it remains as important as ever that we have a rich understanding of what we are doing as a country.
believe character mean
Writing fiction means putting a lot of what you believe about the world at risk, because you have to follow your characters.
war strange
War is too strange to be processed alone,
people asking moral
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.
girl war distance
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 it sad, with a thousand-yard stare out to the distance as you gaze upon the horrors of war they can't quite see. Either way, it's the same story.
issues tools fiction
Fiction offered me tools that allowed me to approach a wider variety of issues than the events of my own life would.
memories real heart
I've worked hard to remember it...The problem is I'm not sure what's real memory and what's my brain filling in details, like a guy whose heart stops and he thinks he sees a bright light. Except I'm sure of my bright light.
lonely jobs communication
Sin is a lonely thing, a worm wrapped around the soul, shielding it from love, from joy, from communion with fellow men and with God. The sense that I am alone, that none can hear me, none can understand, that no one answers my cries, it is a sickness over which, to borrow from Bernanos, “the vast tide of divine love, that sea of living, roaring flame which gave birth to all things, passes vainly.” Your job, it seems, would be to find a crack through which some sort of communication can be made, one soul to another.
hurt firsts homecoming
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.