In February 1969, 25 years ago, I arrived as a young, terrified PFC on this lonely little hill in Quang Ngai Province. Back then, the place seemed huge and imposing and permanent. Tim O'Brien More Quotes by Tim O'Brien More Quotes From Tim O'Brien They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried. Tim O'Brien silent terrible bears What happened, and what might have happened? Tim O'Brien happened might A true war story is never moral. Tim O'Brien war-stories stories war A giddy feeling, in a way, except there was the dreamy edge of impossibility to it - like running a dead-end maze - no way out - it couldn't come to a happy conclusion and yet I was doing it anyway because it was all I could think of to do. Tim O'Brien running life thinking If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. Tim O'Brien war believe lying In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. Tim O'Brien difficult stories war Did I choose this life of illusion? Don't be mad. My bed was made, I just lied in it. Tim O'Brien illusion mad bed 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. Tim O'Brien struggle heart character The bad stuff never stops happening: it lives in its own dimension, replaying itself over and over. Tim O'Brien bad-stuff dimensions stuff They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere, they carried it, the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay, all of it, they carried gravity. Tim O'Brien atmosphere decay sky Can the foot soldier teach anything important about war, merely for having been there? I think not. He can tell war stories. Tim O'Brien feet war thinking ... when he kissed her, she received the kiss without returning it, her eyes wide open, not afraid, not a virgin's eyes, just flat and uninvolved. Tim O'Brien numbness kissing eye I did not set out to write another novel. One day I sat down with the thought of trying my hand at a piece of nonfiction, a personal memoir of youth, but over the next several weeks, without intending it, the work began evolving into what has become 'Tomcat in Love. Tim O'Brien writing trying hands Fiction, maybe art in general, is a tentative, uncertain enterprise; it's not science, it's an exploration, but you never find much in the way of answers. Tim O'Brien way fiction art Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has. Tim O'Brien my-own-life bounce life-is All that peace, man, if felt so good it hurt. I want to hurt it back. Tim O'Brien hurt want men It's very hard to articulate the things that are important about writing. Tim O'Brien hard important writing Inside I feel much like a 12-year-old or a 17-year-old who knows big words. Tim O'Brien bigs feels years I live in my head all day long and the world is a little dreamy. Tim O'Brien littles long world In the attic, a warhead no doubt burns. Everything is combustible. Faith burns. Trust burns. Everything burns to nothing and even nothing burns. . . . And when there is nothing, there is nothing worth dying for and when there is nothing worth dying for, there is only nothing. Tim O'Brien dying doubt love
