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" We have to allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes, including cultural mistakes, in our first drafts. I believe it's okay to get cultural details wrong in your first draft. It's okay if stereotypes emerge. It just means that your experience is limited, that you're human. "

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" I started 'American Born Chinese' as a mini-comic. I would write and draw a chapter, photocopy a hundred or so copies at the corner photocopy store, and then try to sell them on consignment through local comics shops. If I could sell maybe half a dozen, I'd be doing okay. "

Gene Luen Yang

Doing

Born

Chapter

" For 'Boxers & Saints,' I started by reading a couple of articles on the Internet, then writing a really rough outline, then getting more hardcore into the research. I went to a university library once a week for a year, year and a half. "

" My first job was as a programmer. So I feel like I'm familiar with the information technology sector and the information technology culture. "

" Many Japanese families moved to Taiwan during the occupation. Then, when the war ended, they were forced to move back. And at the macro level, the Taiwanese had every reason to cheer when the Japanese left. The Japanese military could often be incredibly brutal. The Taiwanese lived as second-class citizens on their own land. "

" I love the interplay between words and pictures. I love the fact that in comics, your pictures are acting like words, presenting themselves to be read. "

Gene Luen Yang

Love

Acting

" It's a big deal to reveal your friend's deepest truth, your friend's deepest secret. And for all of us, when we do these big things, there's a complexity of motivation that comes behind that decision. "

" Every superhero has this superhero identity and a civilian identity. A lot of their lives are about code switching. "

" I love hearing people who are smarter than me talk about my comics. It makes me feel smarter. "

" I noticed that when my daughter was born, my son really, really liked her. But then as she started getting older, and as she started crawling around our house and touching different things that were his, sibling rivalry issues started appearing. "

" Comics are such a powerful educational tool. Simply put, there are certain kinds of information that are best communicated through sequential visuals. "

" Carl Barks and Don Rosa are two of my favorite cartoonists ever. "

" My experiences growing up in both a Chinese American household and the Catholic Church define much of who I am. "

Gene Luen Yang

American

I Am

" Creativity requires input, and that's what research is. You're gathering material with which to build. "

" The project that I did between 'Boxer & Saints' was 'The Shadow Hero,' which is illustrated by Sonny Liew, an artist who lives in Singapore. "

" My experience of Chinese culture is indirect, through echoes. When I approach the cashier at my local Chinese supermarket, they switch to English before I've even said a word. They somehow know that I'm not quite Chinese enough. "

" At any comic book convention in America, you'll find aspiring cartoonists with dozens of complex plot ideas and armloads of character sketches. Only a small percentage ever move from those ideas and sketches to a finished book. "

" A lot of Asians and Asian-Americans have liver problems. If you basically ask anybody who is Asian, they or one of their relatives will have some sort of a liver issue, and the liver actually falls into the jurisdiction of the gastroenterologist. "

" We're afraid of writing characters different from ourselves because we're afraid of getting it wrong. We're afraid of what the Internet might say. "

" Immigrant parents dream that their children will find a place in their new home, and they willingly suffer hardships in service to that dream. That was certainly true of my parents. "

" Religion and culture are two important ways in which we as humans find our identity. That's certainly true for me. "

Gene Luen Yang

Culture

True

" Ch'in Shih-huang is the first emperor of China. He united seven separate kingdoms into a single nation. He built the Great Wall and was buried with the terra-cotta soldiers. The Chinese have mixed feelings about him. They're proud of the nation he created, but he was a maniacal tyrant. "

" In 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 120 saints of China, 87 of whom were ethnically Chinese. My home church was incredibly excited because this was the first time the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged Chinese citizens in this way. "