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
good great tolstoy writer
A great writer is a great writer... Tolstoy was not a woman, but 'Anna Karenina' is still a pretty good book.
behavior believe courage expose extremes great greatest home human integrity ordinary people sweep tests
I don't believe in any Greatest Generation. I believe in great events. They sweep ordinary people up, expose them to extremes of human behavior and unimaginable tests of integrity and courage, and then deposit them back on the home front.
great hang marines soldiers travel traveled types worked
I got to travel around Anbar Province, had a great group of Marines who worked for me who traveled around Anbar Province. I got to hang out with a lot of different types of Marines and soldiers and sailors.
agree allow countrymen ensuring fit four greater life lives next sign
It's a professional military. You sign up and agree to allow your countrymen to use your life as they see fit for the next four years. And I think we all should have a greater role in ensuring that we use those lives wisely.
aggressive command great iraq journalism marines pieces soldiers sudden
A lot of the great pieces of journalism from Iraq showed how important command influence was in violent, aggressive environments, where Marines and soldiers had a constrained set of choices to make in sudden moments.
people stories
When I tell stories about Iraq, the ones people react to are always the stories of violence. This is strange for me.
bothers clear restricted underneath
With fiction, you can take something that bothers you, or that you don't have in clear focus, and you can put it under as much stress as you want. Really get underneath the skin. With nonfiction, you're restricted to what happened.
abstract confused felt interested puzzle question represent stories troubled war wrote
I started with things that I was troubled by or confused by or interested in, and then I wrote stories to try to puzzle my way through it. But the question is not how to represent war, because it's an abstract thing that's felt differently for all the characters.
certainly clarity definitely found patriotism tyranny
I've certainly thought a lot more about things like tyranny and patriotism and violence. I think I found some kind of clarity - definitely a thicker understanding.
coming consumed country happening ordered paying
There's something odd about working 24/7, being consumed with everything that's happening in Iraq, and then coming back to the country that ordered you over there only to realize that a lot of Americans are not really paying attention.
believe combat death decisions exactly god human life notion prayer purpose serves stakes tremendous war zone
Prayer in a combat zone serves exactly the same purpose as it does in peacetime. In war, the stakes are life and death, true; but if you believe in God and in the notion of a human soul, then we are always making decisions of tremendous significance.
certainly figure people stories war
People should be able to tell stories that are important to them to try and understand what they mean. I don't think you figure anything out on your own. Certainly not war stories.
war
I've been asked what differentiates war literature as a category, and I don't think there is anything.
deal macho people
Sometimes macho language is to mask things people are not ready to deal with.