All Tim O'Brien Quotes
- Words, too, have genuine substance -- mass and weight and specific gravity. English Language
- Let the story tell itself. Funny
- I cannot remember much, I cannot feel much. Maybe erasure is necessary. Maybe the human spirit defends itself as the body does, attacking infection, enveloping… Attacking
- For Rat Kiley, I think, facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around, and when you listened to one of his stories, you'd… Absolute
- You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, 'Is it true?'… Absolute
- I'm skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take… Across
- Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones - THAT kind of love. Body
- Linda was nine then, as I was, but we were in love...it had all the shadings and complexities of mature adult love and maybe more,… Adult
- But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget. You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the… All
- ("I love you," someone says, and instantly we begin to wonder - "Well, how much?" - and when the answer comes - "With my whole… All
- Even now, as I write this, I can still feel that tightness. And I want you to feel it--the wind coming off the river, the… All
- It's not just the embarrassment of tears. That's part of it, no doubt, but what embarrasses me much more, and always will, is the paralysis… Act
- What would you do? Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and your childhood and your dreams… All
- Once someone's dead you can't make them undead. Dead
- We are fascinated, all of us, by the implacable otherness of others. And we wish to penetrate by hypothesis, by daydream, by scientific investigation those… All
- There is always the threat of tomorrow's treachery, or next year's treachery, or the treachery implicit in all the tomorrows beyond that. All
- Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons. Blood
- you're never more alive than when you're almost dead. Alive
- Each of us, I suppose needs his illusions. Life after death. A maker of planets. A woman to love, a man to hate. Something sacred.… Death
- By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes… Carry