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
Phil Klay quotes about
takes time understand war
War is complicated and intense, and it takes time and thoughts to understand what it was.
lies matter means painful people themselves time work
People lie to themselves all the time about what they've been through and what it means - I'm no exception. But you write those lies down - lies that really matter to you and that are really painful to let go of because they've become a part of who you are - and they don't work.
marine time
I never thought anyone would pity me because of my time in the Marine Corps.
admirer huge love time whose work
I have, for a very long time, been a huge admirer of Marilynne Robinson, whose work I just love.
empathetic fairly iraq learn mean pull relationship returned serious time willing
The Iraq I returned from was, in my mind, a fairly simple place. By which I mean it had little relationship to reality. It's only with time and the help of smart, empathetic friends willing to pull through many serious conversations that I've been able to learn more about what I witnessed.
event lives parts
We're told that when we remember, the same parts of our brain light up as when we experienced the event we're remembering. Your brain lives through it again.
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.
arena courage display experience impose millions narratives politics touch war
War is an arena for the display of courage and virtue. Or war is politics by other means. War is a quasi-mystical experience where you get in touch with the real. There are millions of narratives we impose to try to make sense of war.
beginnings continue fear owed stories though
Though I continue to tell stories about Iraq, I sometimes fear this makes me a fraud. I feel guilty about the sorrow I feel because I know it is manufactured, and I feel guilty about the sorrow I do not feel because it is owed, it is the barest beginnings of what is owed to the fallen.
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.
creative decision english history iraq join marines studying war
I'd been in college studying English creative writing and history when I made the decision to join the Marines in the runup to the Iraq war.
difficult join particular people policy sign understand
One of the things that's difficult for people to understand is when you join the military, you don't sign up as an endorsement of any particular policy of the moment.
full novelist novels political strong
Political novels are full of pitfalls, particularly for a novelist with strong political leanings.