Quotes from Min Jin Lee

because he knew well enough to draw a thick line between what was public and what was private.

she wanted to shake him, because in all her life she had never expected this kind of loneliness.

you do well at anything, you gotta pay up to all the people who did worse. On the other hand, if you do badly, life makes you pay a shit tax, too. Everybody pays something.

Life is filled with many complicated tasks, and no one, Casey, no one can do things alone. It's very slow going if you choose that path.

Her silence didn't reflect her intelligence level, contrary to the American view that good talkers were smarter.

The penalties incurred for the mistakes you made had to be paid out in full to the members of your family. But she didn't believe that she could ever discharge these sums.

There's no such thing as a benevolent leader. ... Those communists don't care about you. They don't care about anybody.

For people like us, home doesn't exist.

In life, there was so much insult and injury, and she had no choice but to collect what was hers. But now she wished to take Solomon's shame, too, and add it to her pile, though she was already overwhelmed.

Her older sister used to say that men hated pity; rather, they wanted sympathy and admiration—not an easy combination.

It was not Hansu that she missed, or even Isak. What she was seeing in her dreams was her youth, her beginning, and her wishes—so this was how she became a woman. Without Hansu and Isak and Noa, there wouldn't have been this pilgrimage to this land. Beyond the dailiness, there had been moments of shimmering beauty and some glory, too, even in this ajumma's life. Even if no one knew, it was true.

She didn't mean to be critical, but after the words came from her mouth, they sounded harsh, and she was sorry.

Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt.

The Bible said that a wise person must rein in his tongue. Not everything you wanted to say should be said.

Sunja had made a mistake; however, she didn't believe that her son came from a bad seed. The Japanese said that Koreans had too much anger and heat in their blood. Seeds, blood. How could you fight such hopeless ideas? Noa had been a sensitive child who had believed that if he followed 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.

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

You can't fix Korea. Not even a hundred of you or a hundred of me can fix Korea. The Japs are out and now Russia, China, and America are fighting over our shitty little country.

Sins couldn't be laundered by good results.

It's possible that the college prizes misled me to believe that I could publish a novel immediately after quitting the law. However, the more I studied fiction, the more I realized that writing novels required rigorous discipline and mastery, no different than the study of engineering or classical sculpture. I wanted to get formal training.

Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt. My boy has to survive.

Every child should be wanted

Just study," Hansu had said. "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. Learning was like playing, not labor.

As far as he was concerned, the whole religion thing was a racket for overeducated men who didn't want to do real work.

But in general, he avoided discussions about religion. There was no way to win them anyway, he thought, why bother. Whichever side you fell on, you had to conclude with the statement « I believe... » rather than « I know. ».