Tim O'Brien Quotes

I've always been drawn back to the South, whether it's Southern California or in Florida, where I grew up, and I wanted to write a song about that.

You can take the boy out of the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the boy.

Continuity is one of the things I like about New England.

I was raised to believe that New England is the best place on the planet.

I come from Chicago, and the landscape of the Midwest has always meant a great deal to me.

I was born in Orange County - in Santa Ana. My dad is from California. I was raised on the East Coast. My first two years were in California, but I claim East Coast. I'm sorry, I don't rep California.

Southerners are also like ethnic groups in that they have a sense of group identity.

I'm proud of where I'm from. I'm proud of Long Island.

I was born in Philadelphia, and I've tried to escape that city all my life. I end up writing plays that force me back to Philadelphia, at least psychologically if not physically.

Everybody is a regionalist. Tolstoy is a regionalist - one is where one lives, where one writes.

I come from Texas. We're a different brand of people. You're not changing who I am.

All my father's stories were about our mountain, our valley, our jagged little patch of Idaho.

No matter where I've been or where I go, a piece of Missouri is always with me because this is where I'm from and where I grew up.

I think I'll always consider the Quad Cities home.

I love New York for being New York. I love L.A. for being L.A. But when it comes home, I'm a Midwest, South type of dude. I like open roads, I like to drive, and it may not be as fast, but it's definitely a place where you get to appreciate a lot more. Not saying that you don't up here, but that's not what I'm accustomed to.

I'm not opposed - we manufacture a lot of socks in North Carolina - I just choose not to wear them. It's a Southern thing. It's a cultural thing.

I grew up in Wahpeton, N.D., and I didn't leave until I was 18, and I've kept going back.

I still close my eyes and go home - I can always draw from that.

I miss West Virginia very much.

People ask me about staying here. I think they assume that I wouldn't want to come back to a place like Mississippi, which is so backward and which frustrates me a lot. The responsibility that I feel to tell these stories about the people and the place that I'm from is what pulls me back.

It's really hard to escape where you were brought up. Not that I would ever want to escape it.

If I could live anywhere else in the world, I would probably want a place back in New York.

A piece of my heart will aways be in Alabama.

I was born in Luton, I grew up in Luton, and all my family and friends are still there. Luton is home for me.

I liked New England.