Quotes from Min Jin Lee

I think he just got tired of trying to be a good Korean and quit. I was never a good Korean.

A hardworking scholar should not have to worry about money.

He had visited South Korea with his father several times, and everyone there always treated them like they were Japanese. It was no homecoming;

In a way, Solomon was Japanese, too, even if the Japanese didn't think so. Phoebe couldn't see this. There was more to being something than just blood.

All her life, Suja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer- suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother- die suffering, Go-saeng- the word made her sick. What else was there besides this? Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she'd drunk like water? In the end, he has refused to suffer the conditions of his birth. Did mothers fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come.

he assumed that her strict upbringing had much to do with her ability to forbear and endure.

It is possible that characters need to die for the author to make her moral point, for the author himself to regenerate by letting go of an ideal identity, or for the world to recognize the necessity of certain ideas and ideals to die.

nearly every Korean-Japanese person I met in Japan had some historical connection or social connection with the pachinko business—one of the very few businesses in which Koreans could find employment and have a stake.

Did mothers fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come?

Sho ga nai, sho ga nai. How many times had he heard these words? It cannot be helped. His mother had apparently hated that expression, and suddenly he understood her rage against this cultural resignation that violated her beliefs and wishes.

In short, Korean-Japanese had to participate in small businesses, which were often given outsider or inferior status, because it was not possible to find work elsewhere.

Being a mother had taught her that this kind of emotional injustice was perhaps inevitable.

Listen, if people don't like you, it's not always your fault.

Most people told you their thoughts in words and later confirmed them in actions. There were more people who told the truth than those who lied.

He knew many rich men, strong men, and brave men, yet he was most impressed with educated men who could write well.

Learn everything. Fill your mind with knowledge—it's the only kind of power no one can take away from you." Hansu never told him to study, but rather to learn, and it occurred to Noa that there was a marked difference.

the commodification of Asian hair,

Spend what you need but just throw even a few coins into a tin and forget that you have it. A woman should always have something put by.

Living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage." Noa

Above all, he believed that a man must learn constantly.

not believing that a person you loved—yes, he had loved her—could end up being someone you never knew.

Needless to say, it is a perpetual loop of economic gender cruelty to require women to pay for their physical upkeep and then to punish them financially for not keeping up when they don't have the funds.

She treasured his stories like the beach glass and rose-colored stones she used to collect as a girl—his words astonished her because he was taking her by the hand and showing her new, unforgettable things.

Anyway, the clerk was not wrong. And this is something Solomon must understand. We can be deported. We have no motherland. Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt. My boy has to survive.