Quotes About Conflict

This is a book on war, memory, and identity. It proceeds from the idea that all wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.

Che Guevera and the Maoist PhD saw the Vietnamese revolution only from afar, with all its glamorous makeup, whereas I had seen it close up, denuded. Three million people dead for a revolution was, arguably, worth it, although that was always easier for the living! But three million people dead for this revolution? We had simply traded one Repressive State Apparatus for another one, and the only difference was that it was our own.

Desarmar a un idealista era fácil. Solamente hacía falta preguntarle por qué no estaba en el frente de la batalla concreta que hubiera elegido.»

It proceeds from the idea that all wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. Any

The tendency to separate war stories from immigrant stories means that most Americans don't understand how many of the immigrants and refugees in the United States have fled from wars—many of which this country has had a hand in.

I cleared my throat of a sour taste, the gastric reflux of my confused Oriental and Occidental insides.

As Hegel said, tragedy was not the conflict between right and wrong but right and right, a dilemma none of us who wanted to participate in history could escape.

After all, nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else's freedom and independence. Ten

Which was worse, my country reduced to a war or my country turned into cliché?

Ah, the Amerasian, forever caught between worlds and never knowing where he belongs! Imagine if you did not suffer from the confusion you must constantly experience, feeling the constant tug-of-war inside you and over you, between Orient and Occident.

The Movie was just a sequel to our war and a prequel to the next one that America was destined to wage.

The colonized is a persecuted person whose permanent dream is to become the persecutor.

Haunted and haunting, human and inhuman, war remains with us and within us, impossible to forget but difficult to remember.

We wanted love, peace, and justice, except for our enemies, whom we wanted to burn in Hell, preferably for eternity.

nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else's freedom and independence.

Ever since the first caveman discovered fire and decided that the ones still living in darkness were benighted, it's been civilization against barbarism . . . with every age having its own barbarians.

The war against the English was premised against a desire by the European settlers to break out of the Thirteen Colonies and conquer the entire continent; this was a war for colonization, not a war against colonialism.

The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war

Then what in your opinion is a good story?' 'What it's always been, monkey,' Ganesha said. 'One dhansu conflict. Some chaka-chak song and dance. Grief. Love. Love for the lover, love for the mother. Love for the land. Comedy. Terror. One tremendous villain whom we must love also. All the elements properly balanced and mixed together, item after item, like a perfect meal with a dance of tastes. There you have it.

Oh, no said her mother sadly. You know nothing of the pettiness of women. When brothers agree to split a joint family they sometimes divide lakhs of rupees worth of property in a few minutes. But the tussle of their wives over the pots and pans in the common kitchen--that nearly causes bloodshed.

As long as a language lives, the war will not perish.

Don't ever try to fight with those who have either nothing or everything.

Don't quarrel with a person whose voice is louder than yours.

Don't try to make someone hate the person he loves, for he will still go on loving, but he will hate you.