“In film, you have to present everything on the screen so it's the opposite of what I usually do with storytelling. It forced me to think about how people walk, where they sit at that moment. With Princess of Nebraska, it was just fun to watch because the movie was so far from the story. It was very much a different story.” PeopleThinkingDifferentMomentsStoriesFilmFunWalksWatchesOppositesScreensStorytellingThat MomentPrincessNebraska Author:Yiyun Li
“One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.” ThinkingWorldFirstsImportantCharacterStoriesEasyMistakeNovelEasierPagesHundredShort Story Author:Yiyun Li
“In China, your freedom is always limited, but this limitation applies to almost everyone. If someone does injustice to you, though, you have to find a way to avenge yourself - even by illegal measures. In a sense, injustice is more personal. This idea has always been in Chinese history. I think we read about freedom of speech, or lack of freedom of speech, in China so often. But I don't think people here in America think about how justice, or the idea of justice, is so important in a Chinese setting. It's probably more important than freedom of speech in the Chinese mindset at this moment.” PeopleThinkingImportantMomentsJusticeInjusticeMindsetLimitationChineseFreedom Of Speech Author:Yiyun Li
“Why do I write about China? That is a very good question. I think there are questions about China that I haven't been able to answer. The reason I write is that there are questions to which I want to find answers - or I want to find questions beyond those questions.” ThinkingWritingReasonVery Good Author:Yiyun Li
“I think the isolation in China also has to do with people's memories being wiped out, collective memories as well as individual memories, by the fact that the recent history has been constantly rewritten and revised.” ThinkingIndividualMemoriesIsolation Author:Yiyun Li
“The boy will remain a son and never become a father. He will be forgotten by the crowd once his blood is rinsed clean from the ground; his sister will think of him but soon she will forget him, too. He will live on only in Han's memory, a child punished not for his own insincerity but someone else's disbelief.” ThinkingChildrenFatherMemoriesForgetBoysBloodSonCleanForgottenCrowdsDisbeliefInsincerityForget Him Author:Yiyun Li
