Quotes by Kevin Powers

About Kevin Powers:

Kevin Powers is an American fiction writer, poet, and Iraq War veteran.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I wanted something that I could look back on and say, yes, you were fighting too, you burned to be alive, and whatever failure or accident of nature caused you to be killed could be explained by something other than the fact that I'd missed your givi...

Kevin Powers

All choices are illusions, or if they are not illusions their strength is illusory, for one choice must contend with the choices of all the other men and women deciding anything in that moment.

Kevin Powers

We were not destined to survive. The fact is, we were not destined at all. The war would take what it could get.

Kevin Powers

When we neared the orchard a flock of birds lit from its outer rows. They hadn't been there long. The branches shook with their absent weight and the birds circled above in the riddy mackerel sky, where they made an artless semaphore. I was afraid, I...

Kevin Powers

There is a sharp distinction between what is remembered, what is told and what is true.

Kevin Powers

I've come to accept that parts of life are constant, that just because something happens on two different days doesn't make it a goddamn miracle.

Kevin Powers

Nothing is more isolating than having a particular history.

Kevin Powers

Freedom is not the same as lack of accountability.

Kevin Powers

And I understood why he came and why I couldn't go, not just then at least, because one never knows if what one sees will disappear forever.

Kevin Powers

I didn't want to smile and say thanks. Didn't want to pretend I'd done anything except survive

Kevin Powers

Writing was always an aspiration, but I'd kept it a secret even from myself.

Kevin Powers

Joining the military is not to be taken lightly. You're putting every part of yourself at risk, not just your body but your moral and spiritual centre.

Kevin Powers

I've been writing poems and stories since I was about 13.

Kevin Powers

I'm always most interested in writing about things that I don't understand.

Kevin Powers

As human beings, we have the blessing and the curse that we're able to adapt to almost anything. No matter how extreme the circumstances you're in, they become normal.

Kevin Powers

Noises and smells, those can bring back powerful memories. I remember when I was going to school one Fourth of July, and there were a lot of fireworks going off. I knew that I was in Richmond. I knew that I was a college student. But I thought people...

Kevin Powers

I understand that it's incredibly difficult to watch what's happening on the news every day and not become inured to it. I've fallen victim to that myself, wanting to look away.

Kevin Powers

I understood that 'The Yellow Birds' would be a peculiar representation of the experience of being at war. I intended it to be so.

Kevin Powers

One of the things my service in Iraq did give me was this freedom from fear of failure or any kind of expectations that I had to take a standard path.

Kevin Powers

The male role models I had all seemed to have been in the military. My father served in the army. My uncle was in the Marine Corps. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII. There weren't any career soldiers in my family, but when I was young it seemed...

Kevin Powers

Author Bio

  • NameKevin Powers
  • DescriptionAuthor
  • BornJuly 11, 1980
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist