Quotes from Min Jin Lee

He believed in many ideas, including the idea that a wife must be loyal to her husband. If Kyunghee left a broken man, she would be less worthy of his devotion.

Mozasu era convinto che la vita fosse più simile al pachinko, nel quale anche il caso aveva un ruolo importante.

The good students, who were all Japanese, the ones he admired, wouldn't speak to him. They wouldn't even look at him. He believed that he could enjoy going to school if he were a regular person and not a Korean.

It's a sad thing, of course, but miscarriages reveal the wisdom of nature. It's for the best that you don't give birth when it isn't good for your health. A miscarriage indicates that the woman can conceive, so it is not necessarily a fertility matter.

Learning was like playing

Protesting was for young men without families.

She didn't want to hate him anymore. What did Joseph say to his brothers who had sold him into slavery when he saw them again? "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

The Lord continues to be committed to us even when we sin. He continues to love us. In some ways, the nature of his love for us resembles an enduring marriage, or how a father or mother may love a misbegotten child. Hosea was being called to be like God when he had to love a person who would have been difficult to love. We are difficult to love when

The world judges girls harshly for improprieties--and even accidents. It's wrong, but it is the way this sinful world works.

You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.

A woman's life is endless work and suffering. There is suffering and then more suffering. It's better to expect it, you know

Every morning, Mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes – there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? Etsuko had failed in this important way – she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.

But a God that did everything we thought was right and good wouldn't be the creator of the universe. He would be our puppet. He wouldn't be God. There's more to everything that we can know.

For a woman, the man you marry will determine the quality of your life completely. A good man is a decent life, and a bad man is a cursed life—but no matter what, always expect suffering, and just keep working hard. No one will take care of a poor woman—just ourselves.

Are you dying?" she asked. "It's prostate cancer. I have very good doctors. I don't think I'll die of this. Not very soon, anyway." "You lied then." "No Sunja, we're all dying." She felt angry with him for lying, but she felt grateful, too. She had loved him, and she could not bear the thought of him being gone from this life.

But here's the truth: There's no such thing as a benevolent leader.

The stupid heart could not help but hope.

Once, when Solomon asked her what California was, she had replied, 'Heaven.

But I was born today, and isn't it funny how no one gets to remember that moment and who was there? It's all what's told to you.

Leah looked perpetually frightened in the streets, and both she and Joseph were treated like idiots by their customers, who cared little that the hardworking pair were fluent and literate in another language.

What do you do with silence? Casey wondered. It was easier to yell back at her father. It was impossible to beat a person who refused to fight, who's never had a wish to win.

It's dangerous to think that everything is a sign from God. Perhaps God is always talking to us, but we don't know how to listen,

It wasn't that a white person couldn't comprehend what it was like to be in her skin, but Jay, in his unyielding American optimism, refused to see that she came from a culture where good intentions and clear talk wouldn't cover all wounds. It didn't work that way with her parents, anyway. They were brokenhearted Koreans—that wasn't Jay's fault, but how was he supposed to understand their kind of anguish?

Expect nothing and never disappoint; never harm and be kind. Enjoy the moment.