In any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed. When a booby trap explodes, you close your eyes and duck and float outside yourself. .. The pictures get jumbled, you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.
Tim O'Brien
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES How do you know if something is real? That’s easy. Does it change you? Does it form you? Does it g... C. JOYBELL C. What is it that makes you so angry, bothers you so deeply, that you're compelled to act? CRAIG GROESCHEL People want the here and now, rather than the there and after; as most are living in the where and w... ANTHONY LICCIONE To have the cognitive abilities to do research and development is vital to a forever expanding world... GARY F EVANS... Daisy stared worriedly into his shadowed face. “What if you change your mind about me? What if you... LISA KLEYPAS Tell your story to the universe and Let your actions speak LOVE.' No matter what it is. NAPZ CHERUB PELLAZO I think that many people will intentionally overlook all of the lifeless facts about their relations... C. JOYBELL C. You gotta pay your dues to sing the blues. CAROL PLUM-UCCI You're supposed to be kind to everyone, because you never know when you're meeting an angel. CAROL PLUM-UCCI Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. You don't tell an astronaut what to do. ATMOSPHERE Use your heart. Understand. Learn to see things in the now, not as they were or will be, or as ... E.J. PATTEN Human is what he decides to be. ZAMAN ALI We both know... that soon everything is going to end... ... This chat will be in the... DEYTH BANGER Booby traps or fail-safes Booby traps or fail-safes are dangerous internal events that are trig... ALISON MILLER The scientific method gives us
information by testing and repeating observable things so that we
can... LEWIS N. ROE PEACE IS THE OBJECTIVE TO WAR, BUT THE BLOOD RUNNETH STILL NATALIE URQUIETA When you're editing, you're putting it together in a way that makes sense metaphysically. Yo... D. A. PENNEBAKER But when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you c... SHAUNA NIEQUIST Celebration when your plan is working? Anyone can do that. But when you realize that the story of yo... SHAUNA NIEQUIST The love you get, is equal to the love you give. BEN OAK 37. It is better to be single and unhappy than unhappily married. JAMES C. DOBSON I dialed the number slowly, wanting to get it right. Two rings, and he picked up. "Yes," I sai... SARAH DESSEN Friendship is a double-edged sword one side it can be great and true but the other side it spells be... GARY F EVANS... No matter what sin you find yourself in, turn to God. Let Him forgive, heal, and restore. CRAIG GROESCHEL It starts with one thought and how you perceive the situation and what you think is going to happen.... WANDA BETHEA Objective truth is difficult to come by, and even if you have it, what you can pass on to the next p... DANIEL ABRAHAM Another of the hard things about being in a war, grandchildren, is that although there are times of ... JOSEPH BRUCHAC I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty, aside from knowing truly what you re... ERNEST HEMINGWAY Stand for something. Make your life mean something. Start where you are with what you have. You are ... GERMANY KENT In a sense who you are has always been a story that you told to yourself. Now your self is a story t... GEOFF RYMAN Some people never take a chance and never know what it's like to live life to the full. CHLOE THURLOW Don’t keep your greatness; exhibit it to the admiration of all but note however also to keep your ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Yes! Very funny this terrible thing is. A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls i... JOSEPH CONRAD Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo... GERMANY KENT How lucky I am to have known somebody and something that saying goodbye to is so damned awful. EVANS G. VALENS The sad heart needs work to do. JOAN BAUER It's one of those things that dramatizes everything about a landscape. You get there several years l... JENNIFER CHAPMAN My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, what consolation is th... DIANE SETTERFIELD The prosecution has to go with the evidence and the facts and tell the story as it happened. The def... MARCIA CLARK The earth is an arena of champions. We are all champions. We all did overcome millions of potential ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH I can't tell you what that little ingredient is which makes that first person want to go on and ... SAM DONALDSON I think theatre to some extent is always about telling stories, isn't it, and I think what I'... EVE ENSLER The market is still waiting for HSBC results, which will have a big impact on the direction of the m... ANDREW TO Property shares had a technical rebound, but interest rate concerns will still affect properties unt... ANDREW TO Bank of China's results were quite good; double-digit growth can be taken as good results for a bank... ANDREW TO The index tried to challenge 18,000 but failed, so that triggered profit taking. Tokyo's slide also ... ANDREW TO Trading seems to be focusing on selective counters because investors are cautious amid interest rate... ANDREW TO We're seeing a minor technical rebound after Wall Street rebounded from two days of losses. The key ... ANDREW TO Some investors have returned to pick up the stock at bargain prices. ANDREW TO I think the take-up for the placement is not too good and other property developers may be discourag... ANDREW TO We are afraid that our freedoms and liberties will be infringed in the future. ANDREW TO I think there was some minor selling pressure on telecom stocks as the market continued to see a wea... ANDREW TO A Ritual to Read to Each Other If you don’t know the kind of person I am and... WILLIAM STAFFORD When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is ... JOHN BERGER Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult....Examine your words well, and you will find that even whe... GEORGE ELIOT Sheep don’t need the shepherd to be what they are. The shepherd needs sheep to be what he is. LJUPKA CVETANOVA You pray for things and accept the blessings when they come, you know? And it is about how you talk ... AL JARREAU How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine." The Q... LEWIS CARROLL I tell people: 'Do what you love, but it can also be hard to know what you love early on. But wh... BRAD D. SMITH The story is one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything ... ORSON SCOTT CARD He's for you and wants to help you be the person He created you to be. CRAIG GROESCHEL That has kind of the story of our defense all year. We have allowed people to move the ball and get ... AL WOLSKI When you start loving, your character becomes like the positive side of a magnet and the one you lov... MICHAEL BASSEY JOHNSON The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS When you are making a movie, there are a zillion cooks in the kitchen, and you don't always get ... FRANK PERETTI If God give you strength and courage, don't use it to intimidate people or overpower them, rather us... ANTHONY LICCIONE I hate that just because you happen to be good at something,people automatically think that's what m... AMBER SMITH 38. “A wet bird never flies at night.” (My grandfather said that to me when I was a child and wa... JAMES C. DOBSON The role of the
Christian is to let other people know what Jesus has done, not to
think of themselve... LEWIS N. ROE Naturalistic atheism debunks itself. It
has no power to explain even some
of the most basic principl... LEWIS N. ROE It's important to understand that if
someone calls themselves a Christian, it does not automatically... LEWIS N. ROE Remember, to get what you've never had, you must do what you've never done. But to get what you once... CRAIG GROESCHEL If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for yo... PAULO COELHO When you understand, that what you're telling is just a story. It isn't happening anymore. When you ... CHUCK PALAHNIUK The artist must see the war with a unique vision. If he doesn't, then he hasn't added anything to ou... WILLIAM EASTLAKE When looking for evidence that something exists, it's silly
to start by assuming that it is impossib... LEWIS N. ROE Using the scientific knowledge that we
currently possess, we can take simple logical steps, backed b... LEWIS N. ROE When you understand that what you're telling is just a story. It isn't happening anymore. When you r... CHUCK PALAHNIUK Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an... LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD I always wondered if I could write a novel, so I decided to try. I thought about writing a crime sto... GENE HUNT Eventually I came across another passage. This is what it said: I am not commanding you, but I ... NICHOLAS SPARKS To kill a mockingbird. If you haven't read it, I think you should because it is very interesting. STEPHEN CHBOSKY I will never forget the vision of Jamie walking towards me. NICHOLAS SPARKS As these images were going through my head, my breathing suddenly went still. I looked at Jamie, the... NICHOLAS SPARKS You don't have to learn much out of books, it's like if you want to learn about cows, you go milk on... HARPER LEE You can't really get to know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them. HARPER LEE When you have a lot of people telling you what you are and perceiving you in a certain way, it's... SIA As a director, when you embrace a project, you try to understand as much as you can about its world,... DAVID MACKENZIE Vents were added to the rear bonnet in 1972 and resulted in wet engines and starting problems, and t... CHRISTINA ENGELA It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. Knowledge of course,... TIM O'BRIEN The best crime stories are always about the crime and its consequences - you know, 'Crime And Pu... PAUL GREENGRASS I’m a storyteller. I’ll work to make you believe me. Throw in some real stuff, change a few deta... DOROTHY ALLISON He felt like the true story hadn't been told because it had been told in a one-sided way. And that's... DARRYL FRANK When I was a boy, my mother would tell me that one of the best things in life is the knowledge that ... RENEE AHDIEH All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind... DIANE SETTERFIELD Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it no... TIM O'BRIEN To be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats cake; but Alice had got so much into the wa... LEWIS CARROLL Cam was sitting on the bed, still clothed. His head was lowered, hands braced on his knees in the po... LISA KLEYPAS
More Tim O'Brien
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FLANNERY O'CONNOR People give you a hard time about being a kid at twelve. They didn't want to give you Halloween cand... HEATHER O'NEILL Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes. P.J. O'ROURKE Don't stand unmoving outside the door of a crying baby whose only desire is to touch you. Go to your... PEGGY O'MARA Marry for love. But also choose to marry a man or woman who you love that treats you with the ultima... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR There will be a time when love is beautiful and passionate and nothing else will exist but you and t... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are ... FLANNERY O'CONNOR Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed w... JOHN O'DONOHUE [I suspect] that in the drive toward the liberal universalist notion of human rights that characteri... DARREN O'DONNELL All the possibilities of your human destiny are asleep in your soul. You are here to realize and hon... JOHN O'DONOHUE If you are different from the rest of the flock, they bite you VINCENT O'SULLIVAN We do not need to grieve for the dead. Why should we grieve for them? They are now in a place where ... JOHN O'DONOHUE To love without ownership, to love with total trust and faith in that very love, to love with the sa... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR My feeling on the subject of sex with a man is - don't give it up unless you're willing to give him ... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Life is surreal. When you step back and really take a look at it, the irony is absolute. JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Ladies, you have a ton of power if you just understand the fundamental differences between men and w... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR When it was dark, you always carried the sun in your hand for me. SEáN O'CASEY You cannot borrow half of who you are from someone else, yet people try to do it all of the time, th... JENNIFER O'NEILL For Equilibrium, a Blessing: Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore, May the relief ... JOHN O'DONOHUE Sometimes, when people speak, I cease listening to their words and zoom in instead on the cadence, a... ROSIE O'DONNELL It was a great mistake, my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a seagull or ... EUGENE O'NEILL It could be a meeting on the street, or a party or a lecture, or just a simple, banal introduction, ... JOHN O'DONOHUE The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of sh... JOHN O'DONOHUE Your noble friend will not accept pretension but will gently and very firmly confront you with your ... JOHN O'DONOHUE The ego is the false self-born out of fear and defensiveness. JOHN O'DONOHUE If you try to view yourself through the lenses that others offer you, all you will see are distortio... JOHN O'DONOHUE Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are ... JOHN O'DONOHUE We do not need to go out and find love; rather, we need to be still and let love discover us. JOHN O'DONOHUE Beauty is the illumination of your soul. JOHN O'DONOHUE Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship i... JOHN O'DONOHUE When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn breaking within you.... JOHN O'DONOHUE No one else has access to the world you carry around within yourself; you are its custodian and entr... JOHN O'DONOHUE Your beloved and your friends were once strangers. Somehow at a particular time, they came from the ... JOHN O'DONOHUE Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore... JOHN O'DONOHUE If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it w... JOHN O'DONOHUE Every friendship travels at sometime through the black valley of despair. This tests every aspect of... JOHN O'DONOHUE All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul. You gain little glimpses of its light, colors, and... JOHN O'DONOHUE You are as young as you feel. If you begin to feel the warmth of your soul, there will be a youthful... JOHN O'DONOHUE Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. JOHN O'DONOHUE