“I felt my voice had fallen through and through me, and I couldn't summon it back to tell him or myself anything… — Téa Obreht Copy Share Image
I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly. — Tea Obreht Cyprus Copy Share Image
Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless… — Tea Obreht Army Copy Share Image
“People become very upset,' Gavo tells me, 'when they find out they are going to die' . . . 'They behave very… — Téa Obreht Ask questions Copy Share Image
“By the time I got to high school, I had learned to be more cautious about revealing my dreams. I was reading—and… — Téa Obreht Dreams Copy Share Image
No matter how grave the secret, how imperative absolute silence, someone would always feel the urge to confess, and an unleashed secret… — Tea Obreht Feels Copy Share Image
“To me, the persistence of my grandfather's rituals meant that he was unchanged, running on discipline and continuance and stoicism. I didn't… — Téa Obreht Discipline Copy Share Image
At the end of the day, it's about the reader's attachment to and belief in the magical elements that make or break… — Tea Obreht Attachment Copy Share Image
“I started to feel that nagging sense of shame again, an acute awareness of my own inability to share in his [my… — Téa Obreht Shame Copy Share Image
I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young. — Tea Obreht Death Copy Share Image
A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether… — Tea Obreht Book Copy Share Image
When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it. — Tea Obreht Details Copy Share Image
“Knowing, above all, that I would come looking, and find what he had left for me, all that remained of The Jungle… — Téa Obreht Books Copy Share Image
My mother always says that fear and pain are immediate, and that, when they're gone we're left with the concept, but not… — Tea Obreht Fear Copy Share Image
“But children die how they have been living-with hope. They don't what is happening, so they expect nothing, they don't ask you… — Téa Obreht Children Copy Share Image
When I was eight years old, I wrote a paragraph-long short story about a goat on my mother's hundred-pound, black-and-white-screen laptop. The… — Tea Obreht Black Copy Share Image
“Years of fighting, andm before that, a lifetime on the cusp of it. Conflict we didn't understand...had been at the center of… — Téa Obreht War Copy Share Image
For me it was a lot harder to come to terms with the death of my grandfather than it was to come… — Tea Obreht Death Copy Share Image
“Death had size an color and shape, texture and grace. There was something concrete to it. In that room, Death had come… — Téa Obreht Death Copy Share Image
“I stood still for a few moments, watching him go, a tall, thin, noiseless shadow. Then the realization of it rushed over… — Téa Obreht Time Copy Share Image
I am very interested in place, and the influences of place on characters. — Tea Obreht Character Copy Share Image
“The dead are celebrated. The dead are loved. They give something to the living. Once you put something into the ground, Doctor,… — Téa Obreht Life Copy Share Image
