My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
It is not possible to completely eliminate mediation between you as an observer and the history you are trying to understand. — 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
Real history is far more complex and interesting than the simplistic summaries presented in Wikipedia articles. Knowing this allows you to question… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
“History is a narrative enterprise, and the telling of stories that are true, that affirm and explain our existence, is the fundamental… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
There's this long history of colonialism and the colonial gaze when applied to matters related to China. So a lot of conceptions… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
For 'The Grace of Kings,' I read Han Dynasty historical records in Classical Chinese, which allowed me to get a sense of… — Ken Liu Copy Share Image
Researching real history has taught me to be bolder and more imaginative in building fantasy worlds and writing fantasy characters, to seek… — 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
