“In that moment I realized I did know who to feel the most sorry for. The person who'd killed Levi. I'd find them. And when I did? The "one shot, one kill" motto of the US Army Snipers wouldn't apply.”

“Haha, I can't hit you. If I did, I'd feel sorry for the person who'd have to clean up the mess of your splattered brain.”

“Wendy is still dead. I hadn't understood before: it really doesn't bring them back. Somehow, you think, despite what you know, it will be a trade. Find the person who did the wrong thing and they will suffer instead of the one who was killed. Instead, that person just suffers too.”

“But life had shifted its weight from one point to another, from one leg to the other, like a silent giant in the vast shadows against the ridge, and I did not feel like the person I had been when this day began, and I did not even know if that was something to be sorry for.”

“We feel sorry for the poor people who died,' one soldier said. 'But how are we to know who is a terrorist and who isn't?' said another. 'They mingle with the people, with the civilians, and we cannot question each one of them individually. It is either them or ourselves. But in war who has time for pity? We see our men blown up in landmines. The flesh has to be scraped off the Claymores. They are shot by snipers. Reprisals and massacres take place - are these happenings not inevitable in a time of war? Killings will go on. The civilians will always suffer.”

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you I loved you when I knew I did. Most of all I'm sorry I gave up on us when you never did.”