“. . . the only way to shake your ghosts was to find them . . .” — Adam Johnson Ghosts Copy Share Image
“which was impossible. How could a signal come from everywhere? Just like that, the broadcast seemed to” — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
The death of dictator Kim Jong-Il has cast all eyes on North Korea, a country without literature or freedom or truth. — Adam Johnson Books Copy Share Image
“Ga thought of how difficult it was to come to see the lies you told yourself, the ones that allowed you to… — Adam Johnson Lies Copy Share Image
The next day, she was silent. For breakfast, she murdered an onion and served it raw. — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
In my experience, ghosts are made up only of the living, people you know are out there but are forever out of… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
Today, tomorrow," she said. "A day is nothing. A day is just a match you strike after the ten thousand matches before… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
I know it really sounds cheesy, but I did feel a duty to try to tell the stories of people who couldn't… — Adam Johnson Cheesy Copy Share Image
“To survive in this world, you got to be many times a coward but at least once a hero” — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
“Inside, I’m assaulted by the evening propaganda broadcasts coming over the apartment’s hardwired loudspeaker. There’s one in every apartment and factory floor… — Adam Johnson North korea Copy Share Image
“Real stories like this, human ones, could get you sent to prison, and it didn’t matter what they were about. It didn’t… — Adam Johnson Leadership Copy Share Image
“And you could always tell ginger plants whose tap root had penetrated a corpse: the blooms were large, iridescent yellow, and it… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
“Stories are factual...If a man and his story are in conflict it is the man who must change…In America it is the… — Adam Johnson Story Copy Share Image
“Are there labor camps here?" he asked. "No," she said. "Mandatory marriages, forced-criticism sessions, loudspeaker?" She shook her head. "Then I'm not… — Adam Johnson Heart Copy Share Image
“It’s okay if you can’t make sense of that. I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t grasp it, either. The most vital… — Adam Johnson Hidden meaning Copy Share Image
It's true. In America, you can reinvent yourself at any turn. And, you know, if things aren't going well for you in… — Adam Johnson America Copy Share Image
I'd known that the visit would be highly scripted and that genuine interactions with citizens wouldn't be possible, since it's illegal for… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
“A name isn’t a person,” Ga said. “Don’t ever remember someone by their name. To keep someone alive, you put them inside… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
“Being in an M.F.A. is like living in a sci-fi biosphere on an alien planet, where everyone shares your obscure visionary notions:… — Adam Johnson Friday night Copy Share Image
Writing is hard work, and if anything's true about the process, it's that fact that a good story is hard to find… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
“I find a tattered copy of 1984. I open the book and read a little. Of course it is fiction, but the… — Adam Johnson Book Copy Share Image
In America, the stories we tell ourselves and we tell each other in fiction have to do with individualism. Every person here… — Adam Johnson America Copy Share Image
“And then he closed his eyes and imagined Sun Moon, the one that was always within him...she was a calm presence, open-armed,… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
But, in North Korea, it's just the opposite. There's one story. It's written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are… — Adam Johnson Aptitude Copy Share Image
“She was a believer, you know," the Captain said. "My wife. She thought socialism was the only thing that would make us… — Adam Johnson Marriage Copy Share Image
“picture a pencil and eraser engaged in a beautiful dance across the page. The pencil's tip bursts with expression - squiggles, figures,… — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
“The autopilot is a hands-free piece of electronic wizardry. It's not some brutal application of electricity like one of the Pubyok's car… — Adam Johnson Autopilot Copy Share Image
“I wonder of what you must daily endure in America, having no government to protect you, no one to tell you what… — Adam Johnson Capitalism Copy Share Image
“I'm a Cancer, you know," I tell her. "So it's hard for me to talk. And I have all these weird dreams,… — Adam Johnson Dreams Copy Share Image
“Graffiti, citizens, is the name for the way capitalists deface their public buildings.” — Adam Johnson Capitalism Copy Share Image
Use your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past. — Adam Johnson Future Copy Share Image
“Aren’t our lives a collision of the comic and the uncertain and the terrifying and the mundane?” — Adam Johnson Copy Share Image
