When I was writing my first book, ‘In Harm’s Way,’ I witnessed the sense of sacrifice that those WWII veterans possessed. I was surprised that sometimes their grandchildren hadn’t talked to them about the historic events of that night in July 1945, when the USS Indianapolis went down. Doug Stanton Read Quote
That’s the potential power of a single voice – a neighbor’s, a teacher’s, a parent’s, a friend’s. It can change you, make you feel as if you have a place in the world. Doug Stanton Read Quote
During the writing of all of my books, I’ve learned that, most of all, people want to know that someone is listening and – this is the tricky part – remembering. Doug Stanton Read Quote
Instead of large-scale occupations, we should rely on small units of Special Forces who have proved it’s infinitely more effective to work with a country’s soldiers and citizens at eye level. Doug Stanton Read Quote
Robert Frost had a house in Bennington, Vermont, and I had a friend, the poet Mary Ruefle, who was the caretaker of it when it was owned by Norman Lear, the TV producer. She got a grant to go to Scotland, and she had to be gone six or nine months, so I moved in, and my job was just to make sure the ravage didn’t overtake the place. Doug Stanton Read Quote
Most audiences are being attracted to ’12 Strong’ because of what they might expect to see from a movie like this, which is that the Americans arrive, they march into the camp, they take it over, and take charge. It’s like, ‘Everything’s going to be fine now. We’re here.’ That’s not how these guys operate. They’re very different. Doug Stanton Read Quote
Writing about conflict has provided these dramatic opportunities to talk about really substantial moments in a person’s life. I’m not writing about superheroes; I’m writing about ordinary people. Doug Stanton Read Quote
Winters are so long in northern Michigan – nearly nine months of gray skies and deep snow – that summer comes as a fresh burst. Doug Stanton Read Quote
When I look at Lake Michigan each July, I imagine the men of the Indianapolis visible on the horizon; dark heads, struggling arms, a cry and whirl of a world being remade. I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness, accompanied by a desire to yell out that they will be rescued. Doug Stanton Read Quote
When I first met the survivors of the Indianapolis in 1999 while writing a book about them, their story – the last major action of World War II – was rarely mentioned in high school textbooks. This is despite the fact that, before its torpedoing, the ship had delivered components of the atomic bomb Little Boy to Tinian Island. Doug Stanton Read Quote
