Quotes from Lulu Wang

There's so little representation of people who look like me behind the camera that it makes you want to say yes to any opportunity out of desperation. It puts you in a situation where you can't make your best work. Diversity for cheap.

I can't speak for everybody, and I don't want to say it for an entire culture, but for me, coming from an immigrant family, it's very difficult to go find your voice, which requires a lot of failure.

I don't think there's ever an inappropriate time to laugh! I'm a curious person. So if someone laughs, I want to know why.

There's a reason why the cultures of so many Chinatowns around the world in some ways are more Chinese. They've held onto older Chinese rituals, traditions, and symbols in ways that, if you go back to China today, they're not holding on to. They're getting married in white dresses and in churches.

If you think about feudal China during times of the emperors, food was a very elevated art form and you had to be really skilled.

I immigrated when I was six so I had to learn English and I was always an outsider from a young age, and so I think my drive was that I wanted to fit in.

If I'd been traveling, I come home, my mom makes noodles.

Because if Asian American content is seen as a trend, the way that like leggings are in, then that's not true representation or inclusion. The mainstream doesn't have to worry about that.

My father's a diplomat. He speaks Russian.

My goal is, no matter what genre or story, I'll find a personal angle. It doesn't have to be autobiographical, or specifically Asian-American. It has to explore a burning question that I have.

We all have different aspects of ourselves, and who we are to different people in our lives, at different stages of our lives.

In my family, and especially when I go back to China, it's always like, prepare your stomach, because it's the way that they express love.

As long as I'm making something from my voice, from my perspective there will be Asian American content because I am the storyteller.

My mother and my father are both very funny people, and they're both artistic in their own right. Oftentimes, we get very dramatic about things, but we also laugh really hard.

My grandma, Nai Nai, has had the clothes she wants to be buried prepared since she was like 60. I guess there is an openness to discussing. It's part of life. It's part of the every day.

In some ways, every character we write, especially the protagonist, is some version of ourselves, as a writer/director, even if they aren't the same gender.

I didn't see myself in Jia Jhangke or Wong Kar-Wai films. Those are Asian filmmakers, and I very much am an American filmmaker.

And that is something I've heard from many people who immigrate is that when they go back to their home countries, in a way, they think they're going to be embraced and completely feel like they've come home. This disconcerting thing is when you go back there and you feel more foreign than you ever have.

Oi niin mahtavaan riemunkirjavaan mekkoonsa sonnustautuneena kultainen syysrouva tanssi Pekingiin! Hän pyörähteli ympäriinsä, näytti kaikki pukunsa värit ja häikäisi ihmisten silmiä tuoksuvien sulojensa lukemattomilla mahdollisuuksilla, määrätietoisesti, hämmästyttävästi ja tyrmistyttävästi.