Pages 155-179

Pg. 171-172
"I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth. Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I'm left with faceless responsibility and faceless  grief."

I enjoy simple quotes with a lot of meaning, like this one. He is honest with his writing and the analogy made was quite interesting. He mentions the time when he was a soldier and seeing bodies with real faces. Whereas now (20 years later) he is "left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief." He was young and afraid, and is haunted now by the sites he had seen. He describes his responsibility and grief as being "faceless." If he hadn't of been afraid during the war, he wouldn't have these feelings now. It almost seems like he wanted to remember a face of someone and now he feels empty because he didn't.

Pg. 172
"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."

This quote to me is the definition of creativity. Tim O'Brien is constantly explaining how he writes throughout the book in such an incredible way. I found this quote inviting because he makes it seem like it is easy to be a writer. Whereas for me, it is very hard to write creatively. When I read books every author has there own style and that comes with their own creativity.