Susan Thombs > Susan's Quotes

“They tell me the letters I write to you and leave here at this memorial are waking others up to the fact that there is still much pain left, after all these years, from the Vietnam War. But this I know. I would rather to have had you for 21 years, and all the pain that goes with losing you, than never to have had you at all.”
― Bernard Edelman, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

“My Dearest Bev,

For the last week we have been waiting for an attack, and last night it came in full force. Honey, I was never so scared in my life. We got hit by 12 mortars and rockets, and some even hit our ammo dumps, which really hurt the battery. A mortar landed about 30 feet from me and I was lucky enough to have my head down, but the sergeant next to me didn’t, and we think he lost an eye. We got three men seriously hurt and four others shaken up by the blast. This was my first real look at war, and it sure was an ugly sight. I helped carry some of the wounded away, and boy, I sure hope I don’t have to do that again. It was an experience you can never explain in a million words.

The noise from shooting is enough to drive a person crazy. Even after the attack last night, we had to stay up and wait for a ground attack which, lucky for us, never came. We expect to catch a lot of hell through May because it seems that the VC are really putting a big push on.

Bev, I was so surprised last night to see that the men here were willing to risk their own lives to save a buddy’s. It really makes you have faith in people again, but I hope I don’t have to go through what we did last night in a long time (like never!)

I take your picture out quite often and just look at it, because it’s such a relief from this pitiful place to see such a beautiful being. I am thinking of you always.

All my love,
Al

Allen Paul was a sergeant with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). His unit operated in Both I and III Corps during his tour, April 1968 to April 1969. He is now information coordinator for Indiana Technical College, Richmond, Indiana.”
― Bernard Edelman, ed.

“He wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt. For Rat Kiley, I think, facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around”
― Tim O'Brien

“Garden of Evil. Over here, man, every sin’s real fresh and original.”
― Tim O'Brien

“Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“It was boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused stomach disorders.”
― Tim O'Brien

“They were afraid of dying, but they were even more afraid to show it.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world.”
― Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

“Fate goes ever as fate must.”
― Seamus Heaney, Beowulf

“In off the moors, down through the mist beams, god-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.”
― Seamus Heaney, Beowulf

“The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Within minutes, mounds of concrete and earth were stacked and piled. The streets were ruptured veins. Blood streamed till it was dried on the road, and the bodies were stuck there, like driftwood after the flood.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“This time, Mr. Steiner placed his hand on Rudy’s head and explained, “I know, son
—but you’ve got beautiful blond hair and big, safe blue eyes. You should be happy
with that; is that clear?”
But nothing was clear.
Rudy understood nothing, and that night was the prelude of things to come. Two and
a half years later, the Kaufmann Shoe Shop was reduced to broken glass, and all the
shoes were flung aboard a truck in their boxes.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“All right then, I'll go to hell.”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“You can't pray a lie.”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“Good gracious! Anybody hurt?”
“No’m. Killed a nigger.”
“Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.”
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet