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
assaulted built metaphor vietnam war
'Matterhorn' is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again.
columbia grew teenager worked
I grew up in Oregon, where as a teenager I worked with my grandfather Axel on his i shing boat at the mouth of the Columbia River.
veterans-day war starting
When the peace treaty is signed, the war isn't over for the veterans, or the family. It's just starting.
sex sorry wall
Victory in combat is like sex with a prostitute. For a moment you forget everything in the sudden physical rush, but then you have to pay your money to the woman showing you the door. You see the dirt on the walls and your sorry image in the mirror.
holy touched
Everything is touched by the holy when it is in the presence of death.
marine taught killing
The Marine Corps taught me how to kill, but it didn't teach me how to deal with killing.
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.
caring men evil
He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing to eat. Was that evil? And ants? They killed. No, the jungle wasn’t evil. It was indifferent. So, too, was the world. Evil, then, must be the negation of something man had added to the world. Ultimately, it was caring about something that made the world liable to evil. Caring. And then the caring gets torn asunder. Everybody dies, but not everybody cares.
vets mature cynicism
Cynicism is no more mature than naïveté. You're no more mature, just more burned.
shadow flow steps
Once we recognize our shadow's existence we must resist the enticing step of going with its flow.
before-and-after missions
The time for debilitating fear is before and after the mission.