South Korean - Novelist | July 29, 1965 -
We arrived the way most emigrant families did. My father came first, and the rest of us - my mother, my sister and me - followed a year later.
Chang-Rae Lee
FatherMotherMeSisterRestYear
I didn't leave Wall Street because the work was against my nature - I do have a pretty good head for numbers. I left because I had this love for writing.
WorkNatureLoveGoodWritingWall
I'll read pretty much anywhere and anytime, but for a while now, I've really enjoyed reading on flights, especially the longer hauls, when I'm unplugged from everything and can completely immerse myself in the world of a book and submit happily to its rhythms, perspectives, ideas.
MyselfIdeasWorldBookReadingNow
I suppose people might consider me a 'loose' reader, as I seem willing to read anything of quality thinking and prose.
QualityPeopleMeThinkingAnything
In my teaching, I try to expose my students to the widest range of aesthetic possibilities, so I'll offer them stories from Anton Chekhov to Denis Johnson, from Flannery O'Connor to A.M. Homes, and perhaps investigating all that strange variation of beauty has rubbed off on me. Or perhaps that's why I enjoy teaching literature.
BeautyMeAestheticLiteratureEnjoy
Like most people, I'm fascinated by characters who are completely flawed personalities, riven by anguish and doubt, and are psychologically suspect.
PeopleDoubtWhoLikeMostAnguish
I can put together a pretty decent meal from whatever happens to be in the refrigerator and the pantry. I like the challenge of this sort of improvisation, the rigor of limitation and sometimes having to take a risk.
ChallengeTogetherI CanSometimes
Unlike F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Wolfe, I don't like proper dress while working. I like writing in pajama-like clothing, which eases and relaxes me and allows me to connect with the decidedly improper.
DressMeWritingClothingConnect
I wanted to write about the Korean War, but I had no entry into it that made the kind of sense it needs to make for a novelist.
WarKindWriteSenseMadeNeeds
I'm not the sort of writer who can plan out things. Mostly I have no idea where I'm going.
PlanOutThingsWhereGoingIdea
In my other books, things do happen, but they are kind of bookends to the real action, which for me was an exploration of consciousness. Not that I don't get into the consciousness of the people in 'The Surrendered,' but you could say there's not as much anxiety about it.
PeopleMeActionAnxietyYouKind
I have a hard time revising sentences, because I spend an inordinate amount of time on each sentence, and the sentence before it, and the sentence after it.
TimeHardBecauseBeforeEachSpend
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