“Read what you find interesting, and then follow your interests. You'll find that in doing so you always generate enough to illuminate the next step.”

American-Israeli novelist and journalist

Mark Helprin is an American-Israeli novelist, journalist, conservative commentator, and former policeman. He is known for fiction that moves across different genres and styles, and for a public voice that stands apart from literary fashions. Helprin has said that he belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend. Beyond his novels and journalism, he has served as Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, been a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.