Tim OBrien Quotes about Lying

All Tim O'Brien Quotes Dying Heart Hurt Imagination Leaving Lying quotes Memories War Writing

Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.

Fiction is the lie that helps us understand the truth.

Lying, Fiction, Helping

A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written.

Lying, Fiction, Sometimes

If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.

Tim O'Brien

War, Lying, Believe

Tim O'Brien (2009). “The Things They Carried”, p.65, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.

Tim O'Brien

Truth, Lying, May

Tim O'Brien (2009). “The Things They Carried”, p.80, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, 'Is it true?' and if the answer matters, you've got your answer . . . Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.

Tim O'Brien

Lying, War, Stories