[His grandfather's confession that he cold-bloodedly killed a young German soldier led to Gross's fascination with the horror of Passchendaele] It was sort of like a hinge, and a door swung open at that moment onto a life of consequence or adulthood. I can't really put my finger on what it did, but it did change me. And I became very interested in conflict. It's intriguing to me why the First World War started. It's intriguing that the war continued even after both sides recognized it was hopeless. And it's also intriguing that it ended so ambivalently, leaving the door open for the second one.