“What's the point of living if you don't even own a jetpack?”

“He tried to press the machine into my hands, but I stepped back. He was getting too close, and besides, I didn't know what this meant. Was he trying to sell me the machine? Was he giving it to me? I had heard that in America, if a girl accepted a ring from a boy, it meant she would marry him. What about accepting a tape-playing machine? Did it mean I might have to dance with him?”

“You can kill ten of our men for every one we kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and we will win.”

“Extra' was a very American word. Americans seemed to have extras of everything.”

“Mr. Schoenbrun, we have a secret weapon ... don't smile when I tell you this. Our secret weapon is nationalism. To have nationhood, which is a sign of maturity, is greater than any weapons in the world.”

“I'm very moved to be here today, ... Our lives are now much better, but Vietnam remains a very poor country. We need to work much harder.”

“You will kill ten of us, we will kill one of you, but in the end, you will tire of it first.”