Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth1 October 1946
CountryUnited States of America
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.
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.
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.
actively detail dramatic dynamic function
To be memorable and to have dramatic impact, informational detail must function actively within the dynamic of a story.
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.
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.
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.
bad close detail marriage paying
When you're so close to material, it would be as if you had come out of a bad marriage. You would be so close to it that you would be paying attention to detail that may not mean a whole lot for the reader.
courage harder physical
I learned that moral courage is harder than physical courage.
bombs rhythm takes war
When writing, I'm not thinking about war, even if I'm writing about it. I'm thinking about sentences, rhythm and story. So the focus, when I'm working, even if it's on a story that takes place at war, is not on bombs or bullets. It's on the story.
partly
When I have a book I enjoy, I'm partly in the book. I'm not just observing it.