Anthony Swofford Quotes

#1. It dosnt matter how many mr. and mrs. johnsons are anti war- the actuall killers who know how to use the weapons are not.

Anthony Swofford

#2. Every war is different. Every war is the same.

Anthony Swofford

#3. My combat action has commenced ... I've pissed my pants, but only a little.

Anthony Swofford

#4. My despair is less despair than boredom and loneliness.

Anthony Swofford

#5. Some wars are unavoidable and need well be fought, but this doesn't erase warfare's waste. Sorry, we must say to the mothers whose son's die horribly. This will never end. Sorry.

Anthony Swofford

#6. If while alive you hurt or disappoint people you love, there's no use continuing such behavior when you're dead.

Anthony Swofford

#7. I think the combatant is always burdened with returning and making his way through his past. And that we as citizens have a responsibility to those guys upon return. We have to make some kind of an attempt to understand what their life is like.

Anthony Swofford

#8. A story: A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war. And afterward he turns the rifle in at the armory, and he believes he's finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands, love a woman, build a house, change his son's diaper; his hands remember the rifle.

Anthony Swofford

#9. It occured to me that we will never be young again.

Anthony Swofford

#10. Was your old man in the war?"
"He was in the air force. He built runways."
"The fucking air farce. He ever tell you about it? Did he live?"
"Yes, he lived. He spoke once about Vietnam."
"If he only spoke about it once, he wasn't lying.

Anthony Swofford