“Part of writing a novel is being willing to leap into the blackness. You have very little idea, really, of what's going to happen. You have a broad sense, maybe, but it's this rash leap. It's like spelunking. You kind of create the right path for yourself. But, boy, are there so many points at which you think, absolutely, I'm going down the wrong hole here. And I can't get back to the right hole. I'm not going to be able to get this section back to the right hole - so I'm just going to have to cut it.” ThinkingWritingKindLittlesI CanIdeasHappensAbleBoysNovelPathCuttingWillingHolesLeapGet BackBroadsSectionsBlacknessRight Path Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“Most people dont think about race as much as I do. They dont have to.” PeopleThinkingRace Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“What hasty preparations we make for our future. Think of it: it seems almost tragic, the things we're sure we ought to bring along. We pack too heavy with what we hope we'll use, and too light of what we must. We thus go forth misladen, ill equipped for the dawn.” ThinkingUseLightSeemsOughtIllHeavyPreparationDawnTragicOur FuturePacksHasty Book:On Such a Full Sea: A Novel Source: On Such a Full Sea: A Novel
“I rarely talk about work with writers, and I love getting together with writers. I think writers are great to get together with, because we can talk about everything. I think that's why I enjoy it. Writers tend to be pretty open-minded, and pretty profane and loose. They have fun minds.” ThinkingMindTogetherFunEnjoyHaving FunOpen MindedGet TogetherProfane Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“Not to any really influential effect, but certainly there have been comments that have surprised me. It's surprising sometimes to get particular perspectives on your work, and it's enlightening sometimes to know that non-writers and readers out there have certain assumptions about everything that I both want to keep in mind and want to forget about why I write, and about the connection between me as a private person and the stuff that I think about on the page.” ThinkingKnowsWantWritingMindPersonsHas BeensSometimesCertainStuffForgetEffectsParticularPerspectiveReaderPagesConnectionsAssumptionCommentSurprisingEnlighteningInfluential Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“Maybe someone's who's a different kind of writer [would think otherwise] - someone who'd be just as comfortable writing essays on what their novels are about. Sometimes you feel like certain novelists are like that.” ThinkingFeelsWritingKindDifferentSometimesCertainNovelComfortableNovelistsDifferent KindsEssaysWriting Essays Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I think that's great - I just try not to be one of those people. I find the more I think about it, the less free I feel when I write and when I work.” PeopleThinkingFeelsWritingTrying Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I think the action is ninety-three percent, and the consideration is peppered throughout but pretty short... Once I start it, I feel as though I don't want to look over my shoulder too much. I want to trust the preparations I've made.” ThinkingWantFeelsLooksMadeActionThreeToo MuchPercentShouldersPreparationConsiderationNinety Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I don't think that stuff is gone - I just don't want to dwell on it. There's a difference. As I said, I think we all have tendencies as writers, and I think we all have experience that we bring as readers to each project.” ThinkingWantSaidStuffDifferencesGoneReaderProjectsTendencies Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I had a visceral connection to the period [of Korean War]. By visceral I suppose I mean emotional. But every fiction requires so much that is not that so I did a lot of other research and a lot of thinking, a lot of struggling there.” ThinkingMeanWarFictionStruggleEmotionalPeriodsResearchConnectionsKoreanVisceralKorean War Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I think their pasts are treated with a voice that sees their role as those of innocents. That's reflected in the past time sequences. They're less "written."” ThinkingPastVoiceRolesWrittenTreatedSequence Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“I think because of these big issues of life and death that maybe sex feels like a crass question. But for Christ sake, this is a book that is so interested in an elemental human condition. And one of the ideas about surrender is an erotic surrender, too. These folks are surrendered by destiny; they surrender to each other in certain moments, but there is a lot of erotic surrender.” ThinkingFeelsHumansBookIdeasMomentsBigsCertainSexChristDestinyIssuesConditionsSakeFolksSurrenderLife And DeathHuman ConditionEroticElementalsCrassThis Is A Book Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“Obviously loss of family is huge and critical, but I think really it's more about losing a sense of family. The horror of that kind of incompleteness. Writing this book, I tried not to think about my father, which does no one any good fictionally. I did try to imagine not just the horror of that moment, but the horror of having witnessed it, and the lifelong void. And I think that's what's so frightening.” ThinkingWritingTryingKindDoeBookMomentsFatherLossImagineHugeHorrorLosingCriticalThat MomentVoidFrighteningLifelongIncompleteness Author:Chang-Rae Lee
“Historical novels are about costumery. I think that's the magic and mystery of fiction. I don't want to write historical fiction but I do want the story to have the feel of history. There's a difference.” ThinkingWantFeelsWritingStoriesDifferencesFictionNovelMagicMysteryHistoricalHistorical FictionHistorical Novels Author:Chang-Rae Lee
