My mother is deeply pragmatic by nature. Perhaps you had to be, as an immigrant. You made do. — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
“It came, over and over, down to this: What made someone a mother? Was it biology alone, or was it love?” — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
“Was she sad? She was angry. Furious at the smallness of her mother's life.” — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
My mother ended up getting a Ph.D. of her own, in chemistry, and eventually became a tenured professor. — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
When my father finished his Ph.D., my mother went back for another bachelor's degree, this time in environmental science. — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
It's incredibly rewarding to have people come up to me at readings and say, 'I'm not Chinese, but this is the relationship… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
My mother wrote a teen column for the South China Morning Post in the 1950s when she was growing up in Hong… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
Growing up, I loved looking at the photos in my mother's old Betty Crocker cookbook: the chocolate cakes, the cookie house, even… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
“At last she turned to the only source she could think of: her mother. Her mother was a journalist, at least in… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
My parents came to America in the late 1960s because my father studied for a Ph.D. in Indiana. My mother joined him… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
“Because more than anything, her mother had wanted to stand out; because more than anything, her father had wanted to blend in.… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
“Parents, she thought, learned to survive touching their children less and less. As a baby Pearl had clung to her; she’d worn… — Celeste Ng Copy Share Image
When you mention to people growing up in Cleveland they bring up the river catching on fire, or LeBron James leaving, they have these… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
It's so easy, as a writer, to get stuck in your own head, to live in the little worlds you create. To forget that… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
“All up and down the street the houses looked like any others—but inside them were people who might be happy, or taking refuge, or… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
No reader wants to sit through the same scene four times in a row, unless they're radically different. — Celeste Ng Copy Share
Debut novels are difficult because nobody knows you... they just don't find a huge audience, because that's how the market works. — Celeste Ng Copy Share
We have to figure out why we see the world in different ways and then how are we going to adjust so that we… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
“I have measured my life with coffee spoons and do I dare to eat a peach?' 'DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?” — Celeste Ng Copy Share
“No one, she had learned from experience, could stand such silence for long. If you waited long enough, someone would start talking, and more… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
“Most of the time, everyone deserves more than one chance. We all do things we regret now and then. You just have to carry… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
“Though she would never quite articulate it this way, resentment began to sheathe concern. ANGER IS FEAR'S BODYGUARD, a poster in the hospital hard… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
Spend too much time alone with your own words, and your writing grows anemic, in dire need of a transfusion. — Celeste Ng Copy Share
“Everyone sees race, Lex," said Moody. "The only difference is who pretends not to.” — Celeste Ng Copy Share
Browse Amazon reviews, and you'll see a surprising number of readers who believe one novel can summarize a country, its culture, and its people. — Celeste Ng Copy Share
Short of the dishonest, the illegal, and the cruel, there's only one thing my son could do that would really disappoint me: not liking… — Celeste Ng Copy Share
