“Sometimes the bravest thing in the world was to sit through the night and feel the cold in your bones.” — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
It's a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way… — Tim O'Brien Awake 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 Adults Copy Share Image
But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your… — Tim O'Brien Circles Copy Share Image
“Hear that quiet, man?' he said. 'That quiet - just listen. There's your moral.” — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Anyways, the guys try to be cool. They just lie there and groove, but after a while they start hearing - you… — Tim O'Brien Chamber music 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 Blood 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
“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
“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 Copy Share Image
“I remember Mitchell Sanders sitting quietly in the shade of an old banyan tree. He was using a thumbnail to pry off… — Tim O'Brien History 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 War Copy Share Image
“It was boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused stomach disorders.” — Tim O'Brien 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
“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
“And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That's what stories are for. Stories are for joining the… — Tim O'Brien Memory 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 Gratitude Copy Share Image
Words, too, have genuine substance -- mass and weight and specific gravity. — Tim O'Brien English language Copy Share Image
“She'd say amazing things sometimes. "Once you're alive," she'd say, "you cant ever be dead.” — Tim O'Brien Amazing things Copy Share Image
I'll picture Rat Kiley face, his grief, and I'll think, You dumb cooze. Because she wasn't listening. It wasn't a war story.… — Tim O'Brien Dumb Copy Share Image
There is always the threat of tomorrow's treachery, or next year's treachery, or the treachery implicit in all the tomorrows beyond that. — Tim O'Brien Betrayal 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
