Tim O'Brien Quotes

I get emotionally attached with every film I do, and that stops me from being critical. I can't fight my emotions.

I tend to write it and then let go emotionally.

You know, it's hard sometimes to just detach yourself from what you're doing.

In a strange way, you have to have a certain amount of distance from a thing in order to be able to write about it.

I try not to take on the weight or the burden of it. Once it's on the paper, I try to leave it, because I want to surrender to what I'm supposed to write about.

Our mind should be free from traces of the past, just like the flowers of spring.

I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it.

To die every day to every problem, every pleasure, and not carry over any problem at all; so the mind remains tremendously attentive, active, clear.

When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it.

Dispassion is the best of mental states. . . .

No matter how many times I tell you this, you're still thinking, thinking, judging, judging, coming to conclusions, trying to work out your life. You have to let go. Totally, absolutely, completely. You have to let go so completely that you will feel no body, no mind, no pain, nothing.

The mind which renounces, once and for ever, a futile hope, has its compensation in ever-growing calm.

Actually, I caught myself thinking that I was hoping for someone to break into my apartment and steal my computer, or a big fire would take place in my apartment, or thinking of uninstalling my firewall so someone could hack into my computer. I just had all these dreams and eventually realized what I needed to do was delete the songs because I really wasn't happy with them. I needed a fresh beginning.

And we should forget, day by day, what we have done; this is true non-attachment. And we should do something new. To do something new, of course we must know our past, and this is alright. But we should not keep holding onto anything we have done; we should only reflect on it. And we must have some idea of what we should do in the future. But the future is the future, the past is the past; now we should work on something new.

I know it's hard to let go of people that have been with you forever. Sometimes it's time to call it a day.

My art practice is very detail-, labor- intensive and I think that that's a way of slowing myself down so that I can hear myself think. That quieter voice has sometimes the more interesting idea, if I can get to it.

Don't get seduced by your own stuff; work hard to keep a blank slate state of mind each time you watch your film.

The secret of being a writer: not to expect others to value what you've done as you value it. Not to expect anyone else to perceive in it the emotions you have invested in it. Once this is understood, all will be well.

Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.

For some reason, my main movie, Lady Sings the Blues, to me really isn't me. I really can let go of Diana Ross when I see the movie. I'm really objective when I'm watching it. I liked that movie so much. That movie was like magic so that when I'm looking at it I'm really not seeing myself, I'm seeing the actress. I'm seeing another person, not the me of me.

Do what you can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and fearing alone.

To change skins, evolve into new cycles, I feel one has to learn to discard. If one changes internally one should not continue to live with the same objects. They reflect one's mind and psyche of yesterday. I throw away what has no dynamic, living use.

It's very difficult when you're in something to be objective enough about the material to just see it for what it is. You either read too much into it and become too passionate about it, or you're disappointed.

I love when people will say, "Oh, my songs are my children." I understand that, but I'm also not afraid to kill my kids. I know when the time has come to throw it in the trash can. With a child you've got to go to therapy and put it in daycare and buy it birthday presents. With a song, you can shove it in a dark closet and tell it you'll be there when you're ready.

Anxiety comes into existence only when we become identified with small things. And they all pass.