"Things happened, things came to an end. There was no sense of developing drama." Chap. 1, p. 17

"It was no decision, no chain of ideas or reasons, that steered me into the war. It was an intellectual and physical stand-off, and I did not have the energy to see it to an end." Chap. 3, p. 31

"Without a backward glance at privacy, I gave in to soldiering. I took on a friend, betraying in a sense my wonderful suffering." Chap. 5, p. 42

"One of the most persistent and appalling thoughts that lumbers through your mind as you walk through Vietnam at night is the fear of getting lost, of becoming detached from the others, of spending the night alone in that frightening and haunted countryside." Chap. 8, p. 91

"There was no reliable criterion by which to distinguish a pretty Vietnamese girl from a deadly enemy; often they were one in the same...