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" I find being an adult very difficult. Being an adult artist, Asian American, incredibly difficult. Or trying, anyway. "
Min Jin Lee
Find
Asian
Artist
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" Koreans love to dance; they love to sing. If you actually know Koreans, you see how absurd the stereotype of the 'Asian robot' is. They love to laugh - they're very affectionate. Maybe because of their history of oppression, when they feel you are part of their tribe, they are intensely loyal. I love that about Koreans! "
Min Jin Lee
You
Dance
History
" I have accepted the fact that I don't work very quickly, that I have been rejected a lot as a writer, and that what I do is unusual, so I just have to accept the terms and that it's going to take longer. It is what it is. "
Min Jin Lee
Work
Going
Accept
" We're so willing to dehumanize entire populations in order for us to conveniently go along with our lives. We know exactly one North Korean, for example. The rest of them, we don't know - but it makes it very easy to bomb North Korea if we pretend they're all one person. Literature makes it harder to dehumanize people in this way. "
Min Jin Lee
People
Know
Easy
" I think it's not an accident that you don't have that many Asian American women writers who are breaking out. I don't think it's an accident that you don't have that many Asian American writers, either women or men. I don't think that immigrants are encouraged to become artists. That's very gendered and racialized and ethnicized. "
Min Jin Lee
American
You
Women
" I suffer from an enormous amount of self-doubt, so the fact that 'Pachinko' has been so kindly received has encouraged me not to give up, as I'm always telling myself that, 'Maybe this isn't a smart idea.' "
Min Jin Lee
Suffer
Fact
Me
" We need to recognize how difficult and important being a mother is. "
Min Jin Lee
Important
Difficult
How
" A novel, especially a first novel, is... really an emotional autobiography. All these emotions I'm embarrassed at having had, I've written about. "
Min Jin Lee
Embarrassed
Emotions
First
" I find putting oneself out there difficult. I think writing and sharing writing require different skill sets. I want to be read, but it takes courage to ask someone to read your work. "
Min Jin Lee
Skill
Think
Writing
" I think that the shame of being different is very painful for a lot of people. "
Min Jin Lee
Think
People
Shame
" There's a lot of freedom in failure, and I can see that now. "
Min Jin Lee
Freedom
Lot
See
" Koreans are worried about the Japanese right-wing people, who tend to be against foreigners. But the Koreans in Japan aren't even foreigners. They are essentially culturally Japanese. If a family has lived in Japan for three generations, it's absurd to see them as foreigners. "
Min Jin Lee
People
Three
See
" My husband is half Japanese and half white European-American, and our son is half Korean, quarter Japanese, and a quarter white European-American. "
Min Jin Lee
Half
Quarter
Our
" I think that if you're a writer and a woman, then you have to take humiliation very well. "
Min Jin Lee
Writer
Take
Think
" People often think of America as a classless society, but, of course, that isn't true. Within immigrant communities, there's an enormous distinction of class, depending on who your parents are, and that kind of thing comes out really quick in things like marriage and interpersonal relationships. "
Min Jin Lee
Marriage
Society
People
" I like making things. I enjoy putting words and images on a blank space. There should be joy in the writing itself because parts of it are so challenging and lonesome. I take great pleasure in reading, researching, and interviewing. I enjoy forming my sentences and revising them to make them clean. "
Min Jin Lee
Joy
Reading
Great
" I had thought that Tokyo would be like New York City, but it wasn't. I'd imagined that they'd be similar in their bustle and noise level, but, in fact, Tokyo is a very calm metropolis. The bright lights and hectic night-life images so often found in advertisements and Western media do not reflect every day Japan. "
Min Jin Lee
City
Thought
Media
" Twenty-five million people who live in North Korea are denied freedom in every respect of their lives. In short, they are hostages. Imagine 25 million hostages. "
Min Jin Lee
Short
Freedom
Respect
" Themes don't change very much in story telling, and I think each writer has his or her own territory; however, I think craft and style take a lot of time to develop. I don't think there's any other way to develop your own style without reading your betters. "
Min Jin Lee
Change
Own
Reading
" When my family was living in Tokyo, there was a year when we couldn't go back to the States for Thanksgiving, and we went to Seoul. Mandu is a highly satisfying substitute for turkey and trimmings. "
Min Jin Lee
Thanksgiving
Living
Back
" We're always observing, and we're cautious people. We really want attention, but at the same time, we're ashamed of wanting attention. All those bizarre qualities of being outside are necessary for being a writer. "
Min Jin Lee
Time
Always
People
" I believe there is meaning in life. I believe there is good and evil. "
Min Jin Lee
Good And Evil
Life
Believe
" After I quit being a lawyer in '95, I was having a lot of trouble writing. Then I read somewhere that Willa Cather read a chapter of the Bible every day before she started work. I thought, 'Okay, I'll try it.' Before each writing session, I started to read the Bible like a writer, thinking about language, character, and themes. "
Min Jin Lee
Work
Bible
Character
" We all want to be affiliated with success. It's the impulse of people who have been excluded, and Koreans have been excluded from lots of parties. "
Min Jin Lee
People
Lots
Been
" I have romantic ideas about home and what it should mean. "
Min Jin Lee
Should
Mean
Romantic
" As an artist, my wheelhouse is 19th-century literature. I want to write realist novels in a Victorian sense, and the writers I admire in that style tend to do omniscient narration. "
Min Jin Lee
Artist
Style
Literature
" Education is a beautiful, liberating thing, but I think that tying in education and status, and the need to do well at every cost, is toxic. "
Min Jin Lee
Think
Toxic
Beautiful
" I got married when I was 24 and met my husband when I was 22, so what I know about men in a personal experience could literally fill an index card. "
Min Jin Lee
Men
Husband
Personal
" We have huge holes in our education in the West. I think that we have little knowledge of Asian history. If you ask a well-educated, modern Western person about World War II, most will think that the theatre of war was only in Europe. But it's known that the Pacific War was going on concurrently, and we don't know anything about it. "
Min Jin Lee
War
Education
History
" As a woman of colour, as a person who is a minority, I believe its important that other people know about my language and I don't necessarily have to explain. In the same way, when I read 19th-century literature and if I have to understand a Latin phrase or a French phrase, it is incumbent upon me to learn it. "
Min Jin Lee
People
Believe
Language
" Pachinko, like all gambling, is rigged. The house always wins. It's a central metaphor of life. It's rigged, but you keep playing. "
Min Jin Lee
House
Gambling
Always