With a hangover and with fear, it is difficult to put a helmet on your head. — 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
“Hear that quiet, man?' he said. 'That quiet - just listen. There's your moral.” — Tim O'Brien Quiet man 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
Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“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
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
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 Copy Share Image
“The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, repaying itself over and over.” — Tim O'Brien 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
Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones - THAT… — Tim O'Brien Body Copy Share Image
“A few names were known in full, some in part, some not at all. No one cared. Except in clearly unreasonable cases,… — Tim O'Brien 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 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
“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
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 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
“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
“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
“Why do we care about Lizzie Borden, or Judge Crater, or Lee Harvey Oswald, or the Little Big Horn? Mystery! Because of… — Tim O'Brien Doubt 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… — Tim O'Brien Courage Copy Share Image
“When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war, You could blame the… — Tim O'Brien 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
“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 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
Inside I feel much like a 12-year-old or a 17-year-old who knows big words. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Peace never bragged. If you didn't look for it, it wasn't there.” — Tim O'Brien Peace 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/i/f9c/tim-o-brien-1818_absolutes_y-ou-can-tell-a-true-war-story-by-its-ab_1522644.png)
