Laughter does not deny pain. Laughter - like a wail - acknowledges and replies to pain. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
It's very hard to articulate the things that are important about writing. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Her white skin and those dark brown eyes and the way she always smiled at the world - always, it seemed -… — Tim O'Brien Brown eyes Copy Share Image
There was the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry. — Tim O'Brien 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 Copy Share Image
In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
Can the foot soldier teach anything important about war, merely for having been there? I think not. He can tell war stories. — 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 Copy Share Image
... when he kissed her, she received the kiss without returning it, her eyes wide open, not afraid, not a virgin's eyes,… — Tim O'Brien Detachment 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
“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
You don't know. When I'm out there at night I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving,… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Well, right now I'm not dead. But when I am, it's like...I don't know, I guess it's like being inside a book… — Tim O'Brien Book Copy Share Image
“It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty... Like a killer forest fire,… — Tim O'Brien Aesthetic Copy Share Image
...you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and… — Tim O'Brien 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
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 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
“Because it's all relative. You're pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom come, but… — Tim O'Brien Peace Copy Share Image
“In battle, in a war, a soldier sees only a tiny fragment of what is available to be seen. The soldier is… — Tim O'Brien Battle 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 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
First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were… — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
Mitchell Sanders was right. For the common soldier, at least, war has the feel-the spiritual texture-of a great ghostly fog, thick and… — Tim O'Brien Ambiguity 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
Did I choose this life of illusion? Don't be mad. My bed was made, I just lied in it. — Tim O'Brien Copy Share Image
“Garden of Evil. Over here, man, every sin’s real fresh and original.” — Tim O'Brien Evil Copy Share Image
Words, too, have genuine substance -- mass and weight and specific gravity. — Tim O'Brien English language Copy Share Image
And as a writer now, I want to save Linda's life. Not her body--her life. — Tim O'Brien Body Copy Share Image
![“Well, right now I'm not dead. But when I am, it's like...I don't know, I guess it's like being inside a book that nobody's reading. [...] An old one. It's up on a library shelf, so you're safe and everything, but the book hasn't been checked out for a long, long time. All you can do is wait. Just…” quote by Tim O'Brien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/abb/tim-o-brien-1818_book_well-right-now-i-m-not-dead-but-when-i-a_911144.png)
