I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
I wanted to make my stories, which are inspired by Asian stories, into something fresh, decontextualized - to give them new life… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
My fiction occupies, actually, the very heart of American culture: this eternal question and struggle of what it means to be an… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
Like pretty much every short story writer, I submitted to every market under the sun and hoped for the best. The rejection… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
In general, writers who talk to their colleagues and neighbors constantly about their own writing seem to me pretty insufferable. I try… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
It's true that misunderstanding and lack of understanding are often themes in my fiction, but I am grateful for the moments when… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
The novel that an author writes is often not the novel that the reader reads, and most of the 'messages' in a… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
If I end up having a novel that sells really well and that allows me to pay for health insurance and mortgage… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
“One way to understand fiction is to treat every story as an attempt to make an argument (Helena Bell has written more… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
Writers are naturally obsessed with books, the tangible artifacts of their labor. Even beyond the text, I love the physicality of books,… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
For me, all fiction is about prizing the logic of metaphors - which is the logic of narratives in general - over… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
I don't believe in reducing a style and a voice down to a set of descriptions, so I've never done that. — Ken Liu Copy Share
People who are ambitious - politicians who crave power - think that they're in control of it, but at some point, the movement that… — Ken Liu Copy Share
“My goal is to act as a faithful interpreter, preserving as much of the original's nuances of meaning as possible without embellishment or omission.… — Ken Liu Copy Share
“It’s hard to hear the music behind the words when their meanings get in the way,” she told me once.” — Ken Liu Copy Share
The 'silk' in silkpunk refers not to a source of power, but to an entirely different, expressive technology language. — Ken Liu Copy Share
“A memory is a re-creation, precious because it is both more and less than the original.” — Ken Liu Copy Share
Almost all of my stories can be understood to be elaborations on our drive to remake the world and our adjustments to the result. — Ken Liu Copy Share
“I can only wish that someday you’ll also be pestered by a student as persistent to learn what you do not wish to teach.” — Ken Liu Copy Share
I think male authors who want to try to tackle these issues of representation of women can generally do a better job if they… — Ken Liu Copy Share
“Surveillance is surveillance. I can never understand why some people think it matters whether it's the government doing it to you or a company.” — Ken Liu Copy Share
Whenever you talk about Chinese dragons, emperors, palaces, concubines - they conjure up a whole colonial argle-bargle that has nothing to do with historical… — Ken Liu Copy Share
We have never had a society that was truly just. Some groups have always benefited at the expense of others. — Ken Liu Copy Share
“By custom, we wield the sword and wear the armor, but who among you does not know a mother, sister, daughter, friend, who exceeds… — Ken Liu Copy Share
My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're based on… — Ken Liu Copy Share
