“You're a shadow. You slip out of your own skin, like molting, shedding your own history and your own future, leaving behind… — Tim O'Brien Shadow Copy Share Image
It wasn't a question of deceit. Just the opposite; he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot… — Tim O'Brien Deceit Copy Share Image
Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is. — Tim O'Brien Activity Copy Share Image
The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over. — Tim O'Brien Bad stuff Copy Share Image
When your afraid,reallyafraid, you see things you never saw before, you pay attention to the world. — Tim O'Brien Afraid 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,… — Tim O'Brien Bucked Corpse Copy Share Image
[Y]ou can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. — Tim O'Brien Absolutes Copy Share Image
“He'd been coiled like a snake for years and the tension had gone slack and when he was ready to spring the… — Tim O'Brien Experience Copy Share Image
“You learn, finally, that you'll die, and so you try to hang on to your own life, that gentle, naive kid you… — Tim O'Brien Death Copy Share Image
I cannot remember much, I cannot feel much. Maybe erasure is necessary. Maybe the human spirit defends itself as the body does,… — Tim O'Brien Attacking Copy Share Image
It's not just the embarrassment of tears. That's part of it, no doubt, but what embarrasses me much more, and always will,… — Tim O'Brien Dignity Copy Share Image
“Down inside, of course, I wasn't sure, and yet I had to see her one more time. What I needed, I suppose,… — Tim O'Brien Wasn Sure Copy Share Image
If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if… — Tim O'Brien Believe Copy Share Image
A miracle to confound natural law, a baffling reversal of the inevitable consequences . . . a miracle. . . . An… — Tim O'Brien Cartoon Copy Share Image
But I do like churches. The way it feels inside. It feels good when you just sit there, like you're in a… — Tim O'Brien Church Copy Share Image
A good piece of fiction, in my view, does not offer solutions. Good stories deal with our moral struggles, our uncertainties, our… — Tim O'Brien Blunders Copy Share Image
“My heart tells me to stop right here, to offer quiet benediction and call it the end. But the truth won't allow… — Tim O'Brien Day by day Copy Share Image
“I drank some chocolate milk and then lay down on the sofa in my “living” room, not really sad, just floating; trying… — Tim O'Brien Chocolate milk Copy Share Image
“The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, repaying itself over and over.” — Tim O'Brien Bad stuff Copy Share Image
He had an opinion of himself, I think, that was too high for his own good. Or maybe it was the reverse.… — Tim O'Brien Erase Copy Share Image
A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth. — Tim O'Brien Lying Copy Share Image
“when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix… — Tim O'Brien Confidence Copy Share Image
We are fascinated, all of us, by the implacable otherness of others. And we wish to penetrate by hypothesis, by daydream, by… — Tim O'Brien Daydreaming 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,… — Tim O'Brien Story Sound Copy Share Image
“Not a minister," he said, "but I do like churches. The way it feels inside. It feels good when you just sit… — Tim O'Brien Churches Copy Share Image
“There should be a law, I though. If you support a war, if you think it's worth the price, that's fine, but… — Tim O'Brien Infantry 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… — Tim O'Brien Dream Copy Share Image
By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others.… — Tim O'Brien Certain Copy Share Image
“Kiowa who saw it happen said it was like watching a rock fall, or a big sandbag or something-Just Boom-then down. Not… — Tim O'Brien Pg-6 Copy Share Image
“Looking back after twenty years, I sometimes wonder if the events of that summer didn’t happen in some other dimension, a place… — Tim O'Brien Life Copy Share Image
“Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first… — Tim O'Brien Dreams Copy Share Image
“CEASE FIRE,' Captain Johansen shouted. 'Cease fire, what's wrong with you guys? Stop wasting the goddamn ammo. CEASE FIRE!' Cease fire,' the… — Tim O'Brien Chain of command Copy Share Image
I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and… — Tim O'Brien Blades Copy Share Image
“They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they… — Tim O'Brien Fear Copy Share Image
“The days seemed to stretch out toward infinity, blank and humid, without purpose, and at night I was kept awake by the… — Tim O'Brien Death Copy Share Image
“One morning in Saigon she'd asked what it was all about 'This whole war,' she said, 'why was everybody so mad at… — Tim O'Brien War Copy Share Image
“The object of storytelling, like the object of magic, is not to explain or to resolve, but rather to create and to… — Tim O'Brien Creativity Copy Share Image
“He showed me how...See, he says he's going up through Laos, then into Burma, and then some other country, I forget, and… — Tim O'Brien Laos Copy Share Image
“Oh, man, you fuckin' trashed the fucker," Azar said. " You scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid… — Tim O'Brien Trashed Copy Share Image
“He believed in mission. But . . . he did not believe in it as an intellectual imperative, or even as a… — Tim O'Brien Goals Copy Share Image
![“[Y]ou can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.” quote by Tim O'Brien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f9c/tim-o-brien-1818_absolutes_y-ou-can-tell-a-true-war-story-by-its-ab_1522644.jpg)
