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1 " Oh, don't let him pull that 'Pearl Harbor I'm going off to war' stuff on you. "
― Michael Hastings , I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story
2 " If feels good to live after death. It feels good to not be dead. It feels so good to find myself alive and flying home. The music plays in my ears and I float further and further away from war. Fucking Baghdad. "
3 " The simple and terrifying reality, forbidden from discussion in America, was that despite spending $600 billion a year on the military, despite having the best fighting force the world had ever known, they were getting their asses kicked by illiterate peasants who made bombs out of manure and wood. "
― Michael Hastings , The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan
4 " Janet Malcolm had famously described journalism as the art of seduction and betrayal. Any reporter who didn't see journalism as "morally indefensible" was either "too stupid" or "too full of himself," she wrote. I disagreed. Without shutting the door on the possibility that I was both stupid and full of myself, I'd never bought into the seduction and betrayal conceit. At most, journalism - particularly when writing about media-hungry public figures - was like the seduction of a prostitute. The relationship was transactional. They weren't talking to me because they liked me or because I impressed them; they were talking to me because they wanted the cover of Rolling Stone. "
5 " What the fuck? Didn't you tell him you had a boyfriend?" "I did. He asked if I loved you." "Who is this guy? What's he do?" "He's an accountant in Boston." "An accountant? Jesus Christ, didn't you tell him you're dating a fucking war correspondent? "
6 " I'm glad you're the one I get to leave the parties with. "
7 " Her name has been released to the press. Her photograph is released, too. I want to talk to the press about it. I don't want Andi to be a one-day story. I don't want her to be just a headline on the wires. "
8 " I grew up reading Holocaust literature at the beach, Gulag literature on winter holidays, Vietnam memoirs on spring break. "
― Michael Hastings , The Last Magazine
9 " Things weren’t permanent, things could always fall apart, never get too comfortable, and even those you trust, those you trust as authority figures and role models, are liable to show themselves as illusions. "
10 " For most of my life, I've always been the youngest one at the table, and it's something I've come to expect, maybe take for granted. "
― Michael Hastings
11 " Make war by phone, make love by email. "
12 " It feels good to live after death. It feels good to not be dead. It feels so good to find myself alive.. "
