The wars don't end when you sign peace treaties or when the years go by. They will echo on until I'm gone and all the widows and orphans are gone.
Tim O'BrienRead
Place is so important to me. The Midwest is like a ghost in my life. It's present as I look out the window now. I see Texas, but if I close my eyes and look out the same window, I'm back in my hometown in Worthington, Minnesota, and I cherish those values and that diction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the deep connection between place and personal identity, emphasizing how memories of one's hometown shape values and perception.
In this quote, Tim O'Brien reflects on the significant role that place plays in shaping one's identity and values. He illustrates how the Midwest, particularly his hometown of Worthington, Minnesota, is not just a physical location but a pervasive presence in his life that evokes cherished memories and influences his perspective, even when he is elsewhere. This connection between geography and personal history reveals the profound impact that our origins have on our current experiences and beliefs.
Themes
PlaceIdentityHometownValuesMemories
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of roots and personal history at a community event.
More from Tim O'Brien
All quotes →...you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is not.
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Unlike Chicago or New York, small-town Minnesota did not allow a man's failings to disappear beneath a veil of numbers. People talked. Secrets did not stay secret.
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In fiction workshops, we tend to focus on matters of verisimilitude largely because such issues are so much easier to talk about than the failure of imagination.
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War is a fundamental aspect of human existence. It's good to know what war entails and what the human sacrifice is.
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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.
Tim O'BrienRead
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