In the attic, a warhead no doubt burns. Everything is combustible. Faith burns. Trust burns. Everything burns to nothing and even nothing… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
I did not set out to write another novel. One day I sat down with the thought of trying my hand at… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
("I love you," someone says, and instantly we begin to wonder - "Well, how much?" - and when the answer comes -… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“It was a flight, a kind of fleeing, a kind of falling, falling higher and higher, spinning off the edge of the… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Linda was nine then, as I was, but we were in love. And it was real. When I write about her now,… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It's about sunlight. It's about the special way… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
...you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones - THAT… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
Linda was nine then, as I was, but we were in love...it had all the shadings and complexities of mature adult love… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
...his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed, he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“I suppose if we gain anything from this unsought experience it will be an appreciation for honesty- frankness on the part of… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“They were signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and did not mean what… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Yes, the issue was courage. It always had been, even as a kid. Things scared him. He couldn't help it. Noise scared him, dark… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
It's very hard to articulate the things that are important about writing. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
Fiction, maybe art in general, is a tentative, uncertain enterprise; it's not science, it's an exploration, but you never find much in the way… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“I learned that words make a difference. It's easier to cope with a kicked bucked than a corpse; if it isn't human, it doesn't… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.” — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“The story' Sanders would say "the whole tone, man, you're wrecking it." Tone?' The sound. You need to get a consitent sound, like slow… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“On occasions the war was like a Ping-Pong ball. You could put fancy spin on it, you could make it dance.” — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“They were afraid of dying, but they were even more afraid to show it.” — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“He thought about the difference between good times and bad times, and how funny it was that he could not state the difference, only… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
