Karl Marlantes
Karl Marlantes
Karl Marlantesis an American author, businessman, and decorated Marine veteran. He has written two books: Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth24 December 1944
CountryUnited States of America
zero unique age
We all want to be special, to stand out; there's nothing wrong with this. The irony is that every human being is special to start with, because we're unique to start with. But we then go through some sort of boot camp from the age of zero to about 18 where we learn everything we can about how not to be unique.
nice military exercise
In the military I could exercise the power of being automatically respected because of the medals on my chest, not because I had done anything right at the moment to earn that respect. This is pretty nice. It's also a psychological trap that can stop one's growth and allow one to get away with just plain bad behavior.
writing years agents
I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time, unable to get an agent or publisher to even read the manuscript.
pride marine maturity
I knew many Marines had done brave deeds that no one saw and for which they got no medals at all. I was having a very hard time carrying those medals and didnt have the insight or maturity to know what to do with my combination of guilt and pride.
mad-at-someone able switzerland
How could you get mad at someone who neither needed to attack nor was at all worried about being able to defend? It was like getting mad at Switzerland.
military kids thinking
I don't want any romantics to go into the military. I'm not a pacifist. I think we need a military, and the better one we have, the better off we are. I don't want kids going in there thinking that it's John Wayne on Iwo Jima. That's not healthy.
military stress thinking
And I think that it's - the military has actually made improvements, so people are considering post-traumatic stress disorder as, at the least, a possible psychological problem. You know, when I was in Vietnam, it was just considered malingering. And we're making progress.
war divorce dark
For every veteran who goes through a divorce, a wife goes through one, too. For every veteran alone in the basement, there is a wife upstairs, bewildered, isolated and in despair from the dark clouds of war that hangs over family life.
military mean unhappy
I mean, if you're proud of what you've done when you've served in the military, well then we call that bragging. And if you are unhappy about what happened, we call that complaining. And so what are you going to do?
war writing feet
When I first got back from the war, I said, 'I'm gonna write the Great American Novel about the Vietnam War.' So I sat down and wrote 1,700 pages of sheer psychotherapy drivel. It was first person, and there would be pages about wet socks and cold feet.
marine taught killing
The Marine Corps taught me how to kill, but it didn't teach me how to deal with killing.
hurt orange agents
It won't hurt you. It's just to kill plants. It's called Agent Orange...and it won't bother humans.
holy touched
Everything is touched by the holy when it is in the presence of death.
book writing trying
Really important books to me are the classics. I try very hard to read them well, especially once I got serious about writing.