I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.
Tim O'Brien... when he kissed her, she received the kiss without returning it, her eyes wide open, not afraid, not a virgin's eyes, just flat and uninvolved.
Tim O'BrienI cannot remember much, I cannot feel much. Maybe erasure is necessary. Maybe the human spirit defends itself as the body does, attacking infection, enveloping and destroying those malignancies that would otherwise consume us.
Tim O'Brien