And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It's about sunlight. It's … - Tim O'Brien

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For every good song, I write 20 bad ones I have to chuck away.

Tim O'Brien

And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.

Memories, River, Sisters, Sorrow, War, Writing

Same Author Quotes

It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. Knowledge of course, is always imperfect, but it seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead.

Knowing, Mistake, Reasonable, View, War

By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others. You start sometimes with an incident that truly happened, and you carry it forward by inventing incidents that did not in fact occur but that nonetheless help to clarify and explain.

Facts, Help, Helping, Objectify, Pin, Stories

Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.

Fiction, Helping, Helps, Lie, Lying, Understand

What sticks to memory, often, are those odd little fragments that have no beginning and no end.

Fragments, Littles, Memories, Odd, Sticks

I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.

Felt, Know, Sometimes, Stories, Truer, Want