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Top 160 Tim O'Brien Quotes (2026 Update)
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Tim O'Brien Quote: “They wanted happiness without knowing what it was, or where to look, which made them want it all the more.”

151. “They wanted happiness without knowing what it was, or where to look, which made them want it all the more.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “The whole world worked by subterfuge and the will to believe.”

152. “The whole world worked by subterfuge and the will to believe.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “We find truth inside, or not at all.”

153. “We find truth inside, or not at all.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “The essential object of fiction is not to explain. Explanation narrows. Explanation fixes. Explanation dissolves mystery. Explanation imposes artificial, arrogant order on human contradictions between fact and fact. The essential object of fiction is to embrace and widen and deepen all that is unknown and unknowable – who we are, why we are – and to offer us late-night company as we lie awake pondering our universal journey down the birth canal, and out into the light, and then toward the grave.”

154. “The essential object of fiction is not to explain. Explanation narrows. Explanation fixes. Explanation dissolves mystery. Explanation imposes artificial, arrogant order on human contradictions between fact and fact. The essential object of fiction is to embrace and widen and deepen all that is unknown and unknowable – who we are, why we are – and to offer us late-night company as we lie awake pondering our universal journey down the birth canal, and out into the light, and then toward the grave.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “The rock- it’s talking. And the fog, too, and the grass and the goddamn mongooses. Everything talks. The trees talk politics, the monkeys talk religion. The whole country. Vietnam. The place talks. It talks. Understand? Nam- it truly talks.”

155. “The rock- it’s talking. And the fog, too, and the grass and the goddamn mongooses. Everything talks. The trees talk politics, the monkeys talk religion. The whole country. Vietnam. The place talks. It talks. Understand? Nam- it truly talks.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Building the Mean Streak was not a mistake. We needed a wooden coaster and we were hoping for a Beast. But it was never on the same planet as the Beast. Nothing has ever come close to the Beast.”

156. “Building the Mean Streak was not a mistake. We needed a wooden coaster and we were hoping for a Beast. But it was never on the same planet as the Beast. Nothing has ever come close to the Beast.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Or Kiowa teaching a rain dance to Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen, the three of them whooping and leaping around barefoot while a bunch of villagers looked on with a mixture of fascination and giggly horror. Afterward, Rat said, ‘So where’s the rain?’ and Kiowa said, ‘The earth is slow, but the buffalo is patient,’ and Rat thought about it and said, ‘Yeah, but where’s the rain?”

157. “Or Kiowa teaching a rain dance to Rat Kiley and Dave Jensen, the three of them whooping and leaping around barefoot while a bunch of villagers looked on with a mixture of fascination and giggly horror. Afterward, Rat said, ‘So where’s the rain?’ and Kiowa said, ‘The earth is slow, but the buffalo is patient,’ and Rat thought about it and said, ‘Yeah, but where’s the rain?”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn’t help it.”

158. “He was just a kid at war, in love. He was twenty-four years old. He couldn’t help it.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Dobbins shrugged his shoulders. “What’s serious? I was a kid. This thing is, I believed in God and all that, but it wasn’t the religious part that interested me. Just being nice to people, that’s all. Being decent.”

159. “Dobbins shrugged his shoulders. “What’s serious? I was a kid. This thing is, I believed in God and all that, but it wasn’t the religious part that interested me. Just being nice to people, that’s all. Being decent.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “It was boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused stomach disorders.”

160. “It was boredom with a twist, the kind of boredom that caused stomach disorders.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “War is brutal. Civilians just suffer through it.”

161. “War is brutal. Civilians just suffer through it.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Peace of mind is not a simple matter of pursuing one’s own pleasure; rather, it is inextricably linked to the attitudes of other human beings, to what they want, to what they expect.”

162. “Peace of mind is not a simple matter of pursuing one’s own pleasure; rather, it is inextricably linked to the attitudes of other human beings, to what they want, to what they expect.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.”

163. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Martha shut her eyes. She crossed her arms at her chest as if suddenly cold and said she was glad he hadn’t tried it. She didn’t understand how men could do those things. What things? he asked, and Martha said, The things men do. Then he nodded. It began to form. Oh, he said, those things.”

164. “Martha shut her eyes. She crossed her arms at her chest as if suddenly cold and said she was glad he hadn’t tried it. She didn’t understand how men could do those things. What things? he asked, and Martha said, The things men do. Then he nodded. It began to form. Oh, he said, those things.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “What stories can do, I guess, is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again.”

165. “What stories can do, I guess, is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “My sole fond memory from this period is of a rubbery little Appalachian number by the name of June. Acrobatic tongue. Tooth decay. Illiterate in everything but love.”

166. “My sole fond memory from this period is of a rubbery little Appalachian number by the name of June. Acrobatic tongue. Tooth decay. Illiterate in everything but love.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “He didn’t speak. He was simply there, like the river and the late-summer sun. And yet by his presence, his mute watchfulness, he made it real. He was the true audience. He was a witness, like God, or like the gods, who look on in absolute silence as we live our lives, as we make our choices or fail to make them.”

167. “He didn’t speak. He was simply there, like the river and the late-summer sun. And yet by his presence, his mute watchfulness, he made it real. He was the true audience. He was a witness, like God, or like the gods, who look on in absolute silence as we live our lives, as we make our choices or fail to make them.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “A moral freeze: I couldn’t decide, I couldn’t act, I couldn’t comport myself with even a pretense of modest human dignity.”

168. “A moral freeze: I couldn’t decide, I couldn’t act, I couldn’t comport myself with even a pretense of modest human dignity.”

— Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien Quote: “Like when Ted Lavender went too heavy on the tranquilizers. ‘How’s the war today?’ somebody would say, and Ted Lavender would give a soft, spacey smile and say, ‘Mellow, man. We got ourselves a nice mellow war today.”

169. “Like when Ted Lavender went too heavy on the tranquilizers. ‘How’s the war today?’ somebody would say, and Ted Lavender would give a soft, spacey smile and say, ‘Mellow, man. We got ourselves a nice mellow war today.”

— Tim O'Brien

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