“Still, I learned something important from my short time as a market vendor: once you start trading for yourself, you start thinking for yourself. Before the public distribution system collapsed, the government alone decided who would survive and who would… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“For instance, we were always making mistakes with the unfamiliar products around us, and one time my mother squirted my perfume into her mouth,… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“Still, I learned something important from my short time as a market vendor: once you start trading for yourself, you start thinking for yourself.… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“I could not feel, smell, see, hear, or taste the world around me. If I had allowed myself to experience these things in all… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“Despite all evidence to the contrary, I believed in a benevolent power guiding the universe, a loving force that somehow nudged us in the… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“More important, while these students were in school, I was learning from life. And so I have something to offer that they do not.” — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“I learned something else that day: we all have our own deserts. They may not be the same as my desert, but we all… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“There were so many desperate people on the street crying for help that you had to shut off your heart or the pain would… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“The doctors in Songnam-ri had to be farmers, too. They cultivated medicinal plants, and actually grew their own cotton to have a supply of… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“These men were so handsome and spoke with such beautiful accents, like the South Koreans I had watched on pirated videos, that my mother… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“I understand that sometimes the only way we can survive our own memories is to shape them into a story that makes sense out… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“Even in big city hospitals there is no such thing as “disposable” supplies. Bandages are washed and reused. Nurses go from room to room… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“...we all have our own deserts. Thet may not be the same as my desert, but we all have to cross them to find… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“Along my journey I have seen the horrors that humans can inflict on one another, but I've also witnessed acts of tenderness and kindness… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
“Then he sent us on our way. After we had walked a few steps, my mother and I looked back and saw that he… — Yeonmi Park Copy Share Image
