Joseph Heller Quotes

In Afghanistan, getting shot at was a regular occurrence. I viewed survival as a numbers game. As point man, every time I entered a Taliban compound first, I played the odds in my head.

They want us dead,' said Bond calmly. 'So we have to stay alive.

You're never more alive than in battle." "Never more dead after," I say.

It's an odd feeling, knowing someone is trying to kill you. On the front line, you learn quickly that if you're in the path of a bullet, you will get hit.

The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.

In order to endure death and horror one tends to kill ones own humanity, which is a much greater danger than not being able to bear it.

There are only two ways to come back from the battlefield: With the head of an enemy or without your own.

In war, everything changes. You are very selective of what you do because everything you do can be the last thing you do in your life.

I don’t wanna die, man. They’re not playing. Have you seen how many of them are out there? One just took a shot at me, so unlike you morons, I’m hiding. Hiding is nice. (Vik)

The only thing you want is to come back alive.

After two wars, I have been in danger too often to bother very much about being killed, and when it comes, I would prefer that it should happen in an aeroplane, since aeroplanes have been the best part of my life.

When you've been in life-threatening situations, you become aware that life is not for ever.

You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave.

When you're in the battlefield, survival is all there is. Death is the only great emotion.

I should have died in ambushes a hundred times.

When I did 'Bumble-ardy,' I was so intensely aware of death. Eugene, my friend and partner, was dying here in the house when I did 'Bumble-ardy'. I did 'Bumble-ardy' to save myself. I did not want to die with him. I wanted to live, as any human being does.

For me, at least, Vietnam was partly love. With each step, each light-year of a second, a foot soldier is always almost dead, or so it feels, and in such circumstances, you can't help but love.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life - knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

There is nothing so satisfying as to be shot at without effect.

The battalion, the whole battalion was affected by the two killed just within a week of being there, and I think that that pulled everybody up to make them realise that this was a very serious business.

I was a grunt, walking around in the jungle of Vietnam, trying not to find the enemy. Because I am so big, they were going to give me either a heavy radio or a huge machine gun to carry. I carried a radio.

I have fought for many years. I have killed many men. I have never seen a foreigner die.

If we cannot secure our needs for survival on the basis of law and justice, then we must be ready to secure them with army in our hands.

We are at war and these people are our enemies.

You give us the mission, we can get ‘em. We’ll rout ’em out. When we’re through with them, they will have flies walking across their eyeballs.