American - Author | October 1, 1946 -
I know what it is to feel unloved, to want revenge, to make mistakes, to suffer disappointment, yet also to find the courage to go forward in life.
Tim O'Brien
LifeCourageMistakesDisappointment
Storytelling is the essential human activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is.
SituationMoreStorytellingHuman
No matter how wonderful the story, it has to move on something, and that is language. The words that I use, the pace, the rhythm and cadences all need to be there. If they're not there, the story is like a boat that just sits there and doesn't move on the ocean.
OceanWordsBoatStoryLanguage
I could feel my moral compass as a soldier, in danger of - I could feel the squeeze, the pressure of frustration and anger and fear combining on me... I felt the danger; I felt the squeeze of it.
FearAngerMeFrustrationPressure
The goal, I suppose, any fiction writer has, no matter what your subject, is to hit the human heart and the tear ducts and the nape of the neck and to make a person feel something about the characters are going through and to experience the moral paradoxes and struggles of being human.
HeartExperienceFeelGoalPerson
A bullet can kill the enemy, but a bullet can also produce an enemy, depending on whom that bullet strikes.
EnemyBulletWhomStrikesProduce
I carry the memories of the ghosts of a place called Vietnam - the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers.
MemoriesPeoplePlaceSoldiersCarry
Is the Mona Lisa an 'accurate' representation of the actual human model for the painting? Who knows? Who cares? It's a great piece of art. It moves us. It makes us wonder, makes us gape - finally makes us look inward at ourselves.
GreatArtPaintingLookWonderUs
I live in my head all day long and the world is a little dreamy.
LiveDayWorldLongHeadLittle
The people in 'July, July' do find themselves looking backward, talking to others and to themselves about those over-the-cliff, fork-in-the-road moments in their lives. I imagine this is what must happen at a 30th college reunion.
PeopleCollegeLookingTalkingFind
Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has.
LifeMy OwnNeverOwnOne Thing
There's something about being amid the chaos and the horror of a war that makes you appreciate all you don't have - and all you may lose forever.
WarChaosAppreciateYouLoseMay
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