Who do you call a civilian in a guerilla war? I mean, it might be a farmer by day or a merchant, a housewife, and by night the housewife may be helping to make landmines and booby traps and who knows.
From Tim O'Brien
Stories can encourage us and embolden us to face ourselves and to feel. Stories can make us feel less alone. If we're reading a story that moves us, we can feel that emotion that I feel towards my father or mother or girlfriend. So they can give us late-night company.
Laughter does not deny pain. Laughter - like a wail - acknowledges and replies to pain.
It's one thing to say you're for the war; it's another thing to send your kid to war - your daughter or your son.
I carry the memories of the ghosts of a place called Vietnam - the people of Vietnam, my fellow soldiers.
A small, seemingly inconsequential event can determine a life.
War is a fundamental aspect of human existence. It's good to know what war entails and what the human sacrifice is.
After each of my books about the war has appeared, I thought it might be the last, but I've stopped saying that to myself. There are just too many stories left to tell - in fact, more all the time.
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.'
Life is never all one thing. It bounces around. Certainly, my own life has.
12 perspectives
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