Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth1 October 1946
CountryUnited States of America
almost foot help love partly soldier vietnam
For me, at least, Vietnam was partly love. With each step, each light-year of a second, a foot soldier is always almost dead, or so it feels, and in such circumstances, you can't help but love.
america galloping lone ranger rescue
America before the 1960s was a pretty innocent place. We were the Lone Ranger galloping off to the rescue of the needy and the oppressed of the world, and we could get things done.
horror lose war
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.
above beyond easier federal law legally question required state
There's no question we're not only complying with state and federal law, but we're going above and beyond what's legally required to make it easier on them.
born early great october year
I showed up in October 1946, part of an early surge that would become a great nationwide baby boom. My sister Kathy was born a year later.
left might saying stopped stories time war
After each of my books about the war has appeared, I thought it might be the last, but I've stopped saying that to myself. There are just too many stories left to tell - in fact, more all the time.
alone emotion encourage face less moves ourselves reading stories towards
Stories can encourage us and embolden us to face ourselves and to feel. Stories can make us feel less alone. If we're reading a story that moves us, we can feel that emotion that I feel towards my father or mother or girlfriend. So they can give us late-night company.
enhance obligation science stories writers
Stories are not explanations of the world we live in. Science does that, and math does that. Our obligation as fiction writers is to enhance the mysteries.
anger combining compass danger fear felt moral pressure squeeze
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.
blade human infantry knowing life loops writer
The human life is all one thing, like a blade tracing loops on the ice: a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle-aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow.
above america came entering fiji good latin photos time travel
This is my first time entering photos. I had some good travel photos from Fiji and Latin America, mostly. Some were above water, and some below. They came out pretty well.
dream world return
But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world.
years body nine
Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones - THAT kind of love.
years adults 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, because there were not yet words for it, and because it was not yet fixed to comparisons or chronologies or the ways by which adults measure such things...I just loved her. Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones -- that kind of love.