It's fiction's job to express how it feels to be living now, and it's a complex feeling, full of contradiction. To me it often feels like a brutal trivialization of reality. Michael Helm More Quotes by Michael Helm More Quotes From Michael Helm We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief. Michael Helm writing believe lying I just write what I want to read, and sometimes keeping it interesting means adding one more element that ends up adding another year to the work. Michael Helm writing mean years I love poetry, read it a lot, but make no claim to being able to write it. Michael Helm love-poetry able writing The idea that language can be recombined to create new forms, new things, is of course very old in poetry. Michael Helm form language ideas Absurdity isn't quite so absurd as it once was. Michael Helm absurdity absurd We're getting used to reality and fantasy passing into each other. Much of the border between them has been erased. Michael Helm fantasy borders reality Paranoia can be a sign of a sanity in some circumstances, in some places and times. Michael Helm paranoia sanity circumstances I seem always to have two or three novels going at once. It takes me a long time to finish one. Michael Helm three two long We want to know that we're not alone with our loneliness or loss. Michael Helm loneliness want loss Science is claiming ever more ground from popular stories of the kind we thought we weren't to believe in. Michael Helm kind stories believe Trauma, and certain important experiences, can imprint on us at a genetic level. Michael Helm certain levels important Many of the concepts we once thought belonged to speculation or science fiction are now part of our understood reality. Michael Helm speculation reality fiction The real past can traumatize us, but so can the real future. Michael Helm real past There's some evidence that before events of mass trauma, even unpredictable ones, people begin to feel higher anxiety, often expressed in terms specific to the event. Michael Helm anxiety events people Novels seem to exist because of this need to know and connect, and so story becomes charged with necessity. Michael Helm novel stories needs The novel's not the best form for disposing ideas, though that's one thing it can do. It likely is the best form, though, for conveying the experience of us each being alone, trapped in our skulls with only these bodies and this imperfect instrument of language to convey our state and to find meaning and connection. Michael Helm connections skulls ideas I like a great degree of compression. I like to mix lateral steps with forward ones. I don't want the prose ever to feel simply functional - at least not for any stretch. Michael Helm degrees want steps I'm not even sure if empathy is an act, it could be a disposition. Michael Helm disposition empathy ifs Toronto is hard to capture in a few strokes. Michael Helm strokes toronto capture In an effort to bond with a homeless veteran, Secretary McDonald told him he was in the Special Forces. He did complete Ranger training and served honorably with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. But a lie is a lie, what a disappointment from the leader of a department whose number one issue right now is the restoration of trust. He should be held to a higher standard. The secretary has apologized, as he certainly should. We hope that he can restore the trust that he has lost. Michael Helm politics
