It's very hard to articulate the things that are important about writing. — Tim O'Brien About Copy Share Image
“They were afraid of dying, but they were even more afraid to show it.” — Tim O'Brien Afraid Copy Share Image
The world shrieks and sinks talons into our hearts. This we call memory. — Tim O'Brien Heart Copy Share Image
Why do our politicians put warnings on cigarette packs and not on their own foreheads? — Tim O'Brien Cigarette Copy Share Image
With a hangover and with fear, it is difficult to put a helmet on your head. — Tim O'Brien Difficult Copy Share Image
“My whole life seemed to spill out into the river, swirling away from me, everything I had ever been or ever wanted… — Tim O'Brien Life Copy Share Image
“Money was never a problem, passports were never required. There were always new places to dance.” — Tim O'Brien Dance Copy Share Image
But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world. — Tim O'Brien Dream Copy Share Image
“When your afraid, really afraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world.” — Tim O'Brien Afraid 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 Peace Copy Share Image
“He wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt. For… — Tim O'Brien Truth Copy Share Image
He wished he could've explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had… — Tim O'Brien Brave Copy Share Image
They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of… — Tim O'Brien Atmosphere Copy Share Image
“In the next days it took little provocation for us to flick the flint of our Zippo lighters. Thatched roofs take the… — Tim O'Brien Bad day Copy Share Image
Together we understood what terror was: you're not human anymore. You're a shadow. You slip out of your own skin, like molting,… — Tim O'Brien Behinds Copy Share Image
They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their… — Tim O'Brien Baggage 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 Crosses Copy Share Image
You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask,… — Tim O'Brien Answers Copy Share Image
“Though it's odd, you're never more alive than when you're almost dead. You recognize what's valuable. Freshly, as if for the first… — Tim O'Brien Alive 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 Answers Copy Share Image
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 Attics Copy Share Image
“I would wish this book could take the form of a plea for everlasting peace, a plea from one who knows... Or… — Tim O'Brien Books Copy Share Image
Even now, as I write this, I can still feel that tightness. And I want you to feel it--the wind coming off… — Tim O'Brien Behinds Copy Share Image
“he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered. He wanted her to be a virgin and… — Tim O'Brien Aloneness Copy Share Image
“All of us, I suppose, like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth,… — Tim O'Brien Character 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 Children Copy Share Image
“The town could not talk, and would not listen. "How'd you like to hear about the war?" he might have asked, but… — Tim O'Brien War Copy Share Image
“It is easy, of course, to fear happiness. There is often complacency in the acceptance of misery. We fear parting from our… — Tim O'Brien Fear Copy Share Image
“Most of this I've told before, or at least hinted at, but what I have never told is the full truth. How… — Tim O'Brien Cracked Copy Share Image
Inside I feel much like a 12-year-old or a 17-year-old who knows big words. — Tim O'Brien Big Copy Share Image
“Peace never bragged. If you didn't look for it, it wasn't there.” — Tim O'Brien Peace Copy Share Image
“Hear that quiet, man?' he said. 'That quiet - just listen. There's your moral.” — Tim O'Brien Quiet man Copy Share Image
Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has. — Tim O'Brien Around Copy Share Image
A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written. — Tim O'Brien Fiction Copy Share Image
