Quotes from Min Jin Lee

earlier. Thank

The pinball business was dirty, they said; pachinko gave off a strong odor of poverty and criminality

She had loved his face the way she had loved the brightness of the moon and the cold blue water of the sea.

must learn to forgive—to know what is important, that to live without forgiveness was a kind of death with breathing and movement.

Parents weren't supposed to praise their children, she knew this—it would only invite disaster.

Anyway, you can be polite about it, but that's fucked up. I'm Japanese but I'm not stupid. I lived in America and Europe for a long time; it's crazy what the Japanese have done to the Koreans and the Chinese who were born here. It's fucking bonkers; you people should have a revolution. You don't protest enough. You and your dad were born here, right?

Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.

A parent must be decisive; a child cannot protect himself.

Noa had been a sensitive child who had believed that if he followed all the rules and was the best, then somehow the hostile world would change its mind. His death may have been her fault for having allowed him to believe in such cruel ideals.

all those able-bodied middle-class people who are scared of their shadows, well, they pay the mediocre tax in regular quarterly installments with compounding interest. When you play it safe, that's what happens, my friend. So if I were you, I wouldn't throw any games. I'd use every fucking advantage. Beat anyone who fucks with you to a fucking pulp. Show no mercy to chumps, especially if they don't deserve it. Make the pussies cry.

Be perfect, child. Every Korean must be on his best behavior over there. They think so little of us already. You cannot give them any room to think worse of us. One bad Korean ruins it for thousands of others. And one bad Christian, ruins it for Tens of Thousands of Christians everywhere.

Of course she is! Sunja-ya, a woman's life is endless work and suffering. There is suffering and then more suffering. It's better to expect it, you know.

I think this nobility argument or a greater nation for a persecuted people is a pretext to eject all the unwanted foreigners.

Yoseb grew quiet, wanting what he saw in front of him not to be true. "Isak-ah, why did I bring you to this hell? I was so lonesome for you. I was wrong, you know, to bring you

here, and now I'm punished for my selfishness." Yoseb rested his blade in the basin. "I will not be all right if you die. Do you understand? You cannot die, my boy. Isak-ah, please don't die. How can I go on? What will I tell our parents?

The people in charge don't know anything. And the ones who do don't care.

Why did men get to leave when they didn't get what they wanted?

all of them had lost the home in their minds for good.

You and I. It cannot be.' 'Why?' 'Because it cannot.' There was nothing else he could think of, and he wanted to spare her the cruelty of what he had learned, because she would not believe that she was no different than her parents, that seeing him as only Korean--good or bad--was the same as seeing him only as a bad Korean. She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.

Every day you are closer to your death. You are half-dead already. Where does your identity come from?

You never give me any trouble," she said, feeling his five perfect fingers in hers, and she felt grateful for his sturdiness.

Hansu did not believe in nationalism, religion, or even love, but he trusted in education.

It's something holy to have people touch you when you're sick.

I've met plenty of fancy people. They're too scared to have any real ambition