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.
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.
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.
conversation less policy public serious served war
Less than 1 percent of American have served in 12 years of war, and serious public conversation about military policy is sorely lacking.
people war
People have a very political way of looking at war, and that's understandable.
according marines mood people politics suppose war
I suppose it is the lot of soldiers and Marines to be objectified according to the politics of the day and the mood of the American people about their war.
easy experience gain notions rare reality simple war
Going to war is a rare experience in American culture, so it's easy for simple notions to gain a lot of weight. The reality is always more complex.
served war
I'm not anti-war. I served in a war, and I served proudly. But just or not, necessary or not, war is the industrial-scale slaughter of other humans.
activity experience form human people priesthood separating varied war
Supposedly, going to war initiates you into this gnostic priesthood of people who've had a liminal experience forever separating them from civilians. Except... you go there, and it is what it is. A form of human activity as varied as any other.
intensely iraq war
I didn't want to write a 'this is how it is' Iraq book, because the Iraq War is an intensely complicated variety of things.
deal treating war
Treating war as farce is one way soldiers deal with it.
compare experience open readers tendency using war
We have a tendency to think of war as this quasi-mystical thing, and that interpretation flattens the experience - by using different perspectives, I wanted to open a place for readers to compare and contrast, to make judgments, to engage.
america changes death feels proximity relationship war
In war, it feels like everything you're doing is more important because you're in the proximity of violence and death, and that proximity changes your relationship to America because it changes the way you see the world.
broad exposes kinds marine people segment war
In the Marine Corps, you meet this really broad segment of the country; you're working with people from all kinds of backgrounds. And it exposes you to the American military, particularly the American military at war.