“History is a record of human nature in action.”

“Whenever he was unclear about some idea or emotion, uncertain in his perception of someone or vague about a memory, he sat to his journal and wrote as precisely as he could what he thought or felt or remembered, and thereby gave those thoughts and feelings and memories the solidity and authority of words recorded on a page. And by that simple act made of them his abiding truth.”

“He finally comprehended that the sole impossibility regarding human sorrow is to arrive at some unsurpassable limit to it.”

“I understood more clearly than ever that the line between a noble revolutionary and a lowdown bandit was the line between war and peace.”

“Like Villa, I believed that even though some men did not deserve to go on living, they still deserved to be remembered at their best.”

“The power of men like me does not come solely from our ability to kill--which is no small talent in itself, true, but neither is it as rare as gold. No, the true source of our power is so obvious it sometimes goes unnoticed for what it is: our power comes from other men's lack of courage. There is even less courage in this world than here is talent for killing. Men like me rule because most men are faint of heart in the shadow of death.”

“As we pulled out of Zacatecas, the air was thick with the odors of smoldering ash, bloody dust, putrefying flesh. The rich ripe smells of triumph.”