# Quote — Michael Herr, Dispatches

> Black sergeant: You a reporter?
>
> Herr: No, a writer.
>
> Black sergeant: Careful. You can't use no eraser up where you wanna go.

- Author: [Michael Herr](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr.md)
- Book: [Dispatches](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Herr#Dispatches_(1977)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches/black-sergeant-you

## More from this book

> War stories aren't really anything more than stories about people anyway.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches/war-stories-arent.md)

> Mal Hombre: God damn it, Sergeant. I thought you were a professional soldier.
>
> Sergeant: I waited as long as I could, Sir. Any longer, and I was gonna lose my man.
>
> Mal Hombre: This outfit is perfectly capable of taking care of its own dirty laundry. Is that clear, Sergeant?
>
> Sergeant: Colonel, since when is a wounded trooper 'dirty laundry'?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches/mal-hombre-god.md)

> There was such a dense concentration of energy there [Vietnam], American and essentially adolescent, if that energy could have been channeled into anything more than noise, waste and pain it would have lighted up Indochina for a thousand years.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-herr/dispatches/there-was-such.md)