“My father ran London Films. He made films like 'The Red Shoes,' 'The Third Man.' And he had had a long career in the film business, which was bifurcated with a career in intelligence. He had to deal with gangsters, and sometimes he would take me with him. Also, I went to school with their children.” MenChildrenLongMadeSometimesSchoolFilmFatherDealsCareersRedThirdsShoesLondonRanTake MeGangstersLong CareersRed Shoes Author:Mark Helprin
“That's what the left is always doing. They have an ideal, and they want people to conform to it. When people don't conform to it, they end up being beaten into the mold. And beaten sometimes hard enough so that if they don't fit, then they kill them. That's what happened in the Soviet Union and China.” PeopleIfsWantEndsSometimesHardEnoughLeftHappenedFitIdealsUnionsChinaSovietBeatenConformSoviet UnionMold 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
“and even when I was broken the way sometimes one can be broken, and even though I had fallen, I found upon arising that I was stronger than before, that the glories, if I may call them that, which I had loved so much and that had been darkened in my fall, were shinning even brighter and nearly everytime subsequently I have fallen and darkness has come over me, they have obstinately arisen, not as they were, but brighter.” IfsWayMaySometimesFallFoundDarknessBrokenGloryStrongerFallenBrighterStronger Than Before Author:Mark Helprin
“It was a good speech, but the reaction was due to the fact that politics are madness, and even if one does not know it, a country in electoral season experiences flares of lunacy like the great storms that sometimes march across the golden surface of the sun.” IfsKnowsDoeCountrySometimesFactsSunSpeechSeasonsMadnessStormDuesSurfaceReactionsGoldenMarchFlareLunacy Book:Freddy and Fredericka Source: Freddy and Fredericka
“Who said that justice is what you imagine? Can you be sure that you know it when you see it, that you will live long enough to recognize the decisive thunder of its occurrence, that it can be manifest within a generation, within ten generations, within the entire span of human existence? What you are talking about is common sense, not justice. Justice is higher and not as easy to understand - until it presents itself in unmistakable splendor. The design of which I speak is far above our understanding. But we can sometimes feel its presence.” KnowsFeelsHumansLongSaidSometimesEnoughSpeakEasyUnderstandingJusticeCommonExistenceTalkingImagineGenerationsDesignHigherTenCommon SenseManifestThunderHuman ExistenceSplendor Book:Winter's Tale Source: Winter's Tale
“How the holy and the profane mix in the light of day and at the end of life is sometimes the most beautiful thing in this world and a compassionate entry into the next. After failure and defeat, a concentration upon certain beauties, though forever lost and unretrievable, can lift the wounded past roundedness and the dying past dying, protecting them with an image, still and bright, that will ride with them on their long ride, never to fade and never to retreat.” WorldLongStillsEndsSometimesLightPastBeautifulLife IsCertainNextLostForeverDyingThis WorldHolyDefeatLiftsConcentrationCompassionateFadesBeautiful ThingsWoundedRetreatEntryEnd Of LifeProfane Author:Mark Helprin
