“She was a poor person, I was her poor child, and no one asks poor people if they want war.” — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“As Hegel said, tragedy was not the conflict between right and wrong but right and right, a dilemma none of us who… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“What was it like to live in a time when one’s fate was not war, when one was not led by the… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“When your grandchildren ask you what you did during the war, you can say, I made this movie.” — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“The tendency to separate war stories from immigrant stories means that most Americans don’t understand how many of the immigrants and refugees… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“We were not a people who charged into war at the beck and call of bugle or trumpet. No, we fought to… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“He had a Minnesotan’s admiration for resourcefulness in the face of hardship, bred by generations of people one very bad winter away from starvation… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“When was the last time an American president found it worth his while to write a speech on the importance of art and literature?… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“We don't succeed or fail because of fortune or luck. We succeed because we understand the way the world works and what we have… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“Innocence and guilt. These are cosmic issues. We’re all innocent on one level and guilty on another. Isn’t that what Original Sin is all… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“After all, nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“She wondered what, if anything, she knew about love. Not much, perhaps, but enough to know that what she would do for him now… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“One could choose between innocence and experience, but one could not have both.” — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“then, to present myself as just another immigrant, glad to be in the land where the pursuit of happiness was guaranteed in writing, which,… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“He was more embarrassed and discreet about sex than about things I thought more difficult, like killing people, which pretty much defined the history… — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“While it is better to be loved than hated, it is also far better to be hated than ignored” — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“Every full bottle of alcohol has a message in it, a surprise that one will not discover until one drinks it.” — Viet Thanh Nguyen Copy Share Image
