There is no way for me to replicate for you what a sentence reads like for a Chinese reader. — 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
I was not trying to write some sort of serious meditation on war and peace. 'The Grace of Kings' is meant to… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
Labels like 'Chinese Science Fiction' or 'Western Science Fiction' summarize a vast field of work, all of which are diverse and driven… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
I get to use fiction as a way to work out my thinking and to delight readers in the process. I can't… — 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
There's inherent cultural imbalance whenever you're translating from Chinese to English. Educated Chinese readers are expected not only to know about all… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
I think writing novels has taught me more about the value of patience and being organized. I've learned to use timelines and… — 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
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
The evolution of technology is, like the evolution of literature, heavily path-dependent. Culture plays a far more important role in the acceptance,… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
“But it is the event horizon around a black hole where the Tull-Toks claim the greatest books are to be found. When… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
I think male authors who want to try to tackle these issues of representation of women can generally do a better job… — 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
I write speculative fiction, and in my view, speculative fiction is really just a very intense version of the work of literature… — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
The 'silk' in silkpunk refers not to a source of power, but to an entirely different, expressive technology language. — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
“A memory is a re-creation, precious because it is both more and less than the original.” — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
