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Portrait of Chang-Rae Lee

Chang-Rae Lee

(1965) Novelist United States

133 quotes in 843 categories

Lee says the truth depends on who tells it. He reflects that the past is always present, shaping the present. He also notes that most people don’t think about race as much as he does. He remembers hearing his father’s language, a crash and bang that he will listen for forever.

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Chang-Rae Lee is a novelist from the United States, best known for Native speaker.

Quick Facts About Chang-Rae Lee

Born: July 29, 1965
Nationality: United States
Profession: Novelist
Notable works: Native speaker

About Chang-Rae Lee

Chang‑rae Lee is a Korean‑American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Stanford University. He previously served as Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton University and was director of Princeton’s Program in Creative Writing.

Awards & Honors

American Book Awards Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award Guggenheim Fellowship Rome Prize Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature Asian American Literary Awards Q16995068

Quotes by Chang-Rae Lee

“Behold a fire from the opposite shore.”

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The truth, finally, is who can tell it.

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“I'm a B+ student of life.”

Life

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“Our tainted world looms within us, every one.”

Cancer

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Do not discount the psychic warmth of the hive.

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I think book clubs should read more contemporary poetry.

Book

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To be honest, Im not that much of a reader of Korean fiction, since so little is translated.

Being honest

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Don’t sanctuaries become prisons, and vice versa, foremost in the mind?

Mind

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For at some point, each of us will be asked to embody what we feel and know.

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“He said you could tell about a person not from what he believed, but by what worried him.”

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I'm not the sort of writer who can plan out things. Mostly I have no idea where I'm going.

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To be honest, I'm not that much of a reader of Korean fiction, since so little is translated.

Books

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It is 'where we are' that should make all the difference, whether we believe we belong there or not.

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My parents - my mother, particularly - were very focused on our succeeding. I loved my parents, and was very grateful to…

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“A tale, like the universe, they tell us, expands ceaselessly each time you examine it, until there is finally no telling exactly…

Storytelling

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I really try to forget. I only look at my old works if there's an interview and someone asks me about it.…

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Like most people, I'm fascinated by characters who are completely flawed personalities, riven by anguish and doubt, and are psychologically suspect.

Anguish

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I write on a computer. On breaks, I'll make myself green tea. I don't want something too caffeinated. I guess I don't…

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For me, that's always been one of the great charms of the first person: we gain access to a very personal, private…

Access

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We grow up with this idea that we're all individual agents. We work, make our money, have our place to live and…

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I think their pasts are treated with a voice that sees their role as those of innocents. That's reflected in the past…

History

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“That Fan did not see any of this is not so ironic, for all along her journey we’ve observed more of her…

Ironic

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Yeah, and the language the "we" has, and the character the "we" has. Because that was the part of the book that…

Book

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It's just a weird idea to me because each book is a complete universe unto itself, so why would I want this…

Being honest

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Even though I went to Exeter and Yale, and I enjoyed all the trappings of those places, I think at the same…

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For no matter the shadows of an age, the picture of a young couple in love, we are told, speaks most luminously…

Age

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Before I had published anything, I still hung out with people who liked to write. None of us had published, so there…

Business

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I want the flashbacks to feel that once you're there they have their own unity, their own kind of atmospheric sensibility; I…

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What hasty preparations we make for our future. Think of it: it seems almost tragic, the things we're sure we ought to…

Dawn

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“I wonder if my father, given the chance, would have wished to go back to the time before he made all that…

Father

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“Fan would have expected that one or two of the Girls would have long rebelled at spending a life in a room,…

Complacency

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“Her endeavor was misguided and wrong and maybe plain crazy, akin to someone waking up one day and deciding he’s going to…

Adventure

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“We nearly pressed each other to death, our swollen lips and eyes, wishing up on ourselves the fall of tears, that great…

Death

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“Moment to moment, we act freely, we make decisions and form opinions and there is very little to throttle us. We think…

Time

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Part of writing a novel is being willing to leap into the blackness. You have very little idea, really, of what's going…

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And it occurred to me that in this new millennial life of instant and ubiquitous connection, you don't in fact communicate so…

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“And though the implication is that I am the sort who is always careful and preparing, I that that's not right, either'…

Bloodless

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Most people dont think about race as much as I do. They dont have to.

People

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“Suffering is the noblest art, the quieter the better.”

Art

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For sometimes you can't help but crave some ruin in what you love.

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Chang-Rae Lee by topic

Writing (33) Books (27) Writer (22) Time (17) People (17) Thinking (16) Book (12) Novel (10) Life (10)