“For example, we've all heard this one. Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast and saves his three buddies. Is it true? The answer matters. You'd feel cheated if it never happened. Without the grounding of reality, it's just a trite bit of puffery, pure Hollywood, untrue in the way all such stories are untrue”

— Tim O'Brien , book The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried (1990), How to Tell a True War Story

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Tim O'Brien 25

American novelist 1946

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