Block Quote by Tea Obreht

“I felt my voice had fallen through and through me, and I couldn't summon it back to tell him or myself anything at all.”

— Téa Obreht

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.

— Tea Obreht

Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories: the story of the tiger’s wife, and the story of the deathless man. These…

— Tea Obreht

“People become very upset,' Gavo tells me, 'when they find out they are going to die' . . . 'They behave very strangely,' he…

— Téa Obreht

“By the time I got to high school, I had learned to be more cautious about revealing my dreams. I was reading—and therefore writing—adventure…

— Téa Obreht

No matter how grave the secret, how imperative absolute silence, someone would always feel the urge to confess, and an unleashed secret is a…

— Tea Obreht

“To me, the persistence of my grandfather's rituals meant that he was unchanged, running on discipline and continuance and stoicism. I didn't notice, and…

— Téa Obreht

At the end of the day, it's about the reader's attachment to and belief in the magical elements that make or break magical realism.

— Tea Obreht

“I started to feel that nagging sense of shame again, an acute awareness of my own inability to share in his [my grandfather's] optimism.”

— Téa Obreht

I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young.

— Tea Obreht

A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want…

— Tea Obreht

When you're in a place, the details you focus on are different than details you focus on when you're writing about it.

— Tea Obreht