“La guerre, la guerre, everything la guerre. That's how I grew up. So for me, it's real. It's not something in the past.” RealPastGrewGrew Up Author:Mark Helprin
“A lot of people hate heroes. I was criticized for portraying people who are brave, honest, loving, intelligent. That was called weak and sentimental. People who dismiss all real emotion as sentimentality are cowards. They’re afraid to commit themselves, and so they remain ‘cool’ for the rest of their lives, until they’re dead—then they’re really cool.” PeopleRealHateEmotionHonestHeroWeakIntelligentBraveCommitCowardSentimentalReally CoolSentimentalityPortrayingReal Emotion Author:Mark Helprin
“[When] he's here, he's always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think he's crazy...Don't tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dances by himself, or with a broom sometimes.” ThinkingBookRealSometimesTurnsReadingCrazyLikesGet RealMusic And DanceBroomsStop Time Author:Mark Helprin
“Perhaps things are most beautiful when they are not quite real; when you look upon a scene as an outsider, and come to possess it in its entirety and forever; when you live in the present with the lucidity and feeling of memory; when, for want of connection, the world deepens and becomes art.” WorldWantLooksArtRealFeelingsBeautifulMemoriesForeverSceneConnectionsOutsidersLive In The PresentEntiretyLucidity Book:Ellis Island and Other Stories Source: Ellis Island and Other Stories
“...I returned to walking up the mountain, and there, in the dim asexual beauty of reddening dawns and skies that firmed to blue, I discovered my real and appropriate strengths.” RealNatureSkyStrengthWalkingMountainBlueDawnAppropriate Book:Memoir from Antproof Case Source: Memoir from Antproof Case
“I made a boy's mistake, common enough, of thinking that real life was knowing many things and many people, living dangerously in faraway places, crossing the sea, or starting a power company on the Columbia River, a steamship line in Bolivia.” PeopleThinkingMadeRealEnoughLinesCommonMistakeCompanyBoysKnowingSeaRiversStartingReal LifeCrossingsColumbiaBoliviaFaraway Places Author:Mark Helprin
