Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth1 October 1946
CountryUnited States of America
cowboy good image lighter surprised
I've been surprised by Austin. I had a cowboy image of the place. It's a pretty sophisticated city - in some ways, more sophisticated than Boston. And there's a lighter feel to the place. It's very good for my spirits.
born fiction happened obligation writers
A writer's obligation is to invent: to go beyond what did happen and to look at what could have happened but didn't. Fiction writers are born liars.
death grieving involve sons wars
At the bottom, all wars are the same because they involve death and maiming and wounding, and grieving mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.
inside nonfiction putting stories
Stories have a special way of putting us inside the people, inside the boots of the soldiers. You're absorbed in a way a documentary or nonfiction can't do for you.
You don't have to be in Nam to be in Nam.
aspect entails good human war
War is a fundamental aspect of human existence. It's good to know what war entails and what the human sacrifice is.
actively detail dramatic dynamic function
To be memorable and to have dramatic impact, informational detail must function actively within the dynamic of a story.
decades remained returned rightly
I returned to Vietnam in '94, and even then, all those decades later, walking around that place, I remained afraid. And, in some ways, rightly so.
carry fellow ghosts memories people vietnam
I carry the memories of the ghosts of a place called Vietnam - the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers.
approach subject vietnam
For me, the way to approach a subject such as Vietnam is through storytelling.
draft months notice prior struggled struggling war
What do you do when you get a draft notice and you think a war is wrong? And I struggled with that for months prior to my being inducted into the army, and I'm still struggling with it, 40 years later.
fiction truth
Fiction is a lie that is told in the service of truth.
characters dedicated form inside labeled war work wrote
'The Things They Carried' is labeled right inside the book as a work of fiction, but I did set out when I wrote the book to make it feel real... I use my own name, and I dedicated the book to characters in the book to give it the form of a war memoir.
courage forward life suffer
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.