---
title: "114 Ken Liu Quotes - Famous Linguist (Inseln im Netz)"
description: "Ken Liu quotes on storytelling, power, and inventive language."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b015/author-ken-liu-56338.jpg"
---

![Portrait of Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b015/author-ken-liu-56338.jpg)

# Ken Liu

(1976)   Linguist   People's Republic of China

 **114** quotes in **342** categories

Ken Liu talks about how stories are more than a set of rules and how a memory is a recreation that feels both familiar and new. He notes that people who crave power often find the movements they start end up controlling them. He also explains that the word 'silk' in silkpunk describes a new expressive technology, not magic.

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Ken Liu is a linguist from People's Republic of China, best known for *Inseln im Netz*.

## Quick Facts About Ken Liu

Born January 1, 1976

Nationality People's Republic of China

Profession Linguist

Notable works Inseln im Netz

Known for The Wall of Storms, The Paper Menagerie, Q48413184

## About Ken Liu

His stories have appeared in magazines such as The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Reactor, Uncanny Magazine and in several “Year’s Best” anthologies.

## Awards & Honors

Nebula Award for Best Short Story Hugo Award for Best Short Story Locus Award for Best First Novel World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction Ignotus Award for Best Anthology Seiun Award for Best Translated Short Story Locus Award for Best Collection Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for Best Foreign-Language Short Story

##  Quotes by Ken Liu

> [“She may be from the sky, yet she is not so strange after all.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/she-may-be-from-the-sky-yet-she-is-not-so-strange-after-all/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Strange](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/strange/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e6f/ken-liu-4222_strange_she-may-be-from-the-sky-yet-she-is-not-s_2425819.jpg)

> [“Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves obscure our truths.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/sometimes-the-stories-we-tell-ourselves-obscure-our-truths/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Stories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stories/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/33c/ken-liu-4222_stories_sometimes-the-stories-we-tell-ourselves_3002276.jpg)

> [I'm not sure I necessarily have explicit messages.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-m-not-sure-i-necessarily-have-explicit-messages/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Explicit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/explicit/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/538/ken-liu-4222_explicit_i-m-not-sure-i-necessarily-have-explicit_3231066.jpg)

> [I still think in a parallel universe, I became a mathematician.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-still-think-in-a-parallel-universe-i-became-a-mathematician/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Became](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/became/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/810/ken-liu-4222_became_i-still-think-in-a-parallel-universe-i-b_2123213.jpg)

> [Trying to predict the future is a loser's game.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/trying-to-predict-the-future-is-a-loser-s-game/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Future](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/future/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/456/ken-liu-4222_future_trying-to-predict-the-future-is-a-loser_1670265.jpg)

> [“Dad and I went on walking, our shadows touching.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/dad-and-i-went-on-walking-our-shadows-touching/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Dad](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dad/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4ab/ken-liu-4222_dad_dad-and-i-went-on-walking-our-shadows-to_290496.jpg)

> [I'm very interested in foundational narratives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-m-very-interested-in-foundational-narratives/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Foundational](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/foundational/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7cd/ken-liu-4222_foundational_i-m-very-interested-in-foundational-narr_1539105.jpg)

> [We are defined by the places we hold in the web of others’ lives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/we-are-defined-by-the-places-we-hold-in-the-web-of-others-lives/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Defined](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/defined/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/24b/ken-liu-4222_defined_we-are-defined-by-the-places-we-hold-in_1970708.jpg)

> [Short fiction encourages experimentation, and it's fun to play with form and try experiments that may or may not work out.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/short-fiction-encourages-experimentation-and-it-s-fun-to-play-with/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Experimentation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/experimentation/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/79f/ken-liu-4222_fun_short-fiction-encourages-experimentation_2206590.jpg)

> [When I act as a translator, I am really doing a performance for my fellow Anglophone readers in the West.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/when-i-act-as-a-translator-i-am-really-doing-a-performance-for-my/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Act](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/act/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/911/ken-liu-4222_act_when-i-act-as-a-translator-i-am-really-d_2208873.jpg)

> [“I would like a window seat,” I said, imagining the stars streaming by.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-would-like-a-window-seat-i-said-imagining-the-stars-streaming-by/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Astronomy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/astronomy/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca4/ken-liu-4222_astronomy_i-would-like-a-window-seat-i-said-imagin_485496.jpg)

> [It is not possible to completely eliminate mediation between you as an observer and the history you are trying to understand.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/it-is-not-possible-to-completely-eliminate-mediation-between-you-as/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e3a/ken-liu-4222_history_it-is-not-possible-to-completely-elimina_652617.jpg)

> [“I can only wish that someday you’ll also be pestered by a student as persistent to learn what you do not wish…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-can-only-wish-that-someday-you-ll-also-be-pestered-by-a-student-as/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/education/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d4/ken-liu-4222_education_i-can-only-wish-that-someday-you-ll-also_336831.jpg)

> [I don't believe in reducing a style and a voice down to a set of descriptions, so I've never done that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-don-t-believe-in-reducing-a-style-and-a-voice-down-to-a-set-of/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Believe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/believe/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fc4/ken-liu-4222_believe_i-don-t-believe-in-reducing-a-style-and_22897.jpg)

> [There is no way for me to replicate for you what a sentence reads like for a Chinese reader.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/there-is-no-way-for-me-to-replicate-for-you-what-a-sentence-reads/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d25/ken-liu-4222_books_there-is-no-way-for-me-to-replicate-for_1994253.jpg)

> [Trying to project our expectations and our desires onto the sci-fi being written in China now isn't terribly helpful.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/trying-to-project-our-expectations-and-our-desires-onto-the-sci-fi/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[China](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/china/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e38/ken-liu-4222_china_trying-to-project-our-expectations-and-o_2952865.jpg)

> [I wanted to make my stories, which are inspired by Asian stories, into something fresh, decontextualized - to give them new life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-wanted-to-make-my-stories-which-are-inspired-by-asian-stories-into/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Fantasy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fantasy/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca6/ken-liu-4222_fantasy_i-wanted-to-make-my-stories-which-are-in_2658785.jpg)

> [“The silence of the victims of the past imposes a duty on the present to recover their voices, and we are most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/the-silence-of-the-victims-of-the-past-imposes-a-duty-on-the-present/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Responsibility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/responsibility/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b6/ken-liu-4222_responsibility_the-silence-of-the-victims-of-the-past-i_2015064.jpg)

> [In creating the silkpunk aesthetic, I was influenced by the ideas of W. Brian Arthur, who articulates a vision of technology as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/in-creating-the-silkpunk-aesthetic-i-was-influenced-by-the-ideas-of-w/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Dreams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dreams/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/729/ken-liu-4222_dreams_in-creating-the-silkpunk-aesthetic-i-was_1735710.jpg)

> [The way a story makes an argument is quite different from the way a persuasive essay does it. Emotional truth and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/the-way-a-story-makes-an-argument-is-quite-different-from-the-way-a/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Argument](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/argument/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aaa/ken-liu-4222_argument_the-way-a-story-makes-an-argument-is-qui_472996.jpg)

> [“ For every ebb there’s a flow; for every flow there’s an ebb. The full moon must wane just as the new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/for-every-ebb-there-s-a-flow-for-every-flow-there-s-an-ebb-the-full/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ba6/ken-liu-4222_change_for-every-ebb-there-s-a-flow-for-every-f_663934.jpg)

> ['The Grace of Kings' draws on Western traditions as much as it does on Chinese traditions, though the bones of the story…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/the-grace-of-kings-draws-on-western-traditions-as-much-as-it-does-on/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Grace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/grace/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e04/ken-liu-4222_grace_the-grace-of-kings-draws-on-western-trad_2225475.jpg)

> [I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-ve-been-writing-long-enough-to-know-that-fiction-as-a-rhetorical/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Best](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/best/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fdf/ken-liu-4222_best_i-ve-been-writing-long-enough-to-know-th_1579168.jpg)

> [I certainly have been writing stories that are hard science fiction, that are very reminiscent of 'Golden Age tales' from the '40s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/i-certainly-have-been-writing-stories-that-are-hard-science-fiction/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Age](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/age/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/848/ken-liu-4222_age_i-certainly-have-been-writing-stories-th_684675.jpg)

> [Researching real history has taught me to be bolder and more imaginative in building fantasy worlds and writing fantasy characters, to seek…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/researching-real-history-has-taught-me-to-be-bolder-and-more/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Building](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/building/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/671/ken-liu-4222_building_researching-real-history-has-taught-me-t_2163450.jpg)

> [People who are ambitious - politicians who crave power - think that they're in control of it, but at some point, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/people-who-are-ambitious-politicians-who-crave-power-think-that-they/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Ambitious](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ambitious/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9d4/ken-liu-4222_ambitious_people-who-are-ambitious-politicians-who_23510.jpg)

> [The 'Grace of Kings' begins as a very dark, complicated world filled with injustices - among them the oppressed position of women…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/the-grace-of-kings-begins-as-a-very-dark-complicated-world-filled/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1b6/ken-liu-4222_change_the-grace-of-kings-begins-as-a-very-dark_602597.jpg)

> [My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/my-wife-lisa-and-i-both-grew-up-on-wuxia-chinese-historical-romances/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Fantasy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fantasy/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3f/ken-liu-4222_fantasy_my-wife-lisa-and-i-both-grew-up-on-wuxia_427772.jpg)

> [“He’s not so bad, he thought. He’s graceful in defeat. That’s a quality that belongs to a phoenix among men. • •…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/he-s-not-so-bad-he-thought-he-s-graceful-in-defeat-that-s-a-quality/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Checkers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/checkers/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bad/ken-liu-4222_failure_he-s-not-so-bad-he-thought-he-s-graceful_990154.jpg)

> [“To see the light side and the dark side of the Force as sunlit foam and shadowed eddies in the same Tide;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/to-see-the-light-side-and-the-dark-side-of-the-force-as-sunlit-foam/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Dark side](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dark-side/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96a/ken-liu-4222_dark-side_to-see-the-light-side-and-the-dark-side_2664295.jpg)

> [For 'The Grace of Kings,' I read Han Dynasty historical records in Classical Chinese, which allowed me to get a sense of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/for-the-grace-of-kings-i-read-han-dynasty-historical-records-in/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Complexity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/complexity/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/65b/ken-liu-4222_complexity_for-the-grace-of-kings-i-read-han-dynast_1611920.jpg)

> [The Singaporean speculative tradition is different. Singapore doesn't conceive itself as the centre of the world or the one country that's going…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/the-singaporean-speculative-tradition-is-different-singapore-doesn-t/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Country](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/country/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce5/ken-liu-4222_country_the-singaporean-speculative-tradition-is_1307635.jpg)

> [“My goal is to act as a faithful interpreter, preserving as much of the original's nuances of meaning as possible without embellishment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/my-goal-is-to-act-as-a-faithful-interpreter-preserving-as-much-of-the/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/83e/ken-liu-4222_beauty_my-goal-is-to-act-as-a-faithful-interpre_35104.jpg)

> [“You think destroying Centillion will free you, whatever ‘free’ means. But let me ask you, can you tell me the requirements for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/you-think-destroying-centillion-will-free-you-whatever-free-means-but/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d5f/ken-liu-4222_freedom_you-think-destroying-centillion-will-fre_2295913.jpg)

> [“History is a narrative enterprise, and the telling of stories that are true, that affirm and explain our existence, is the fundamental…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/history-is-a-narrative-enterprise-and-the-telling-of-stories-that-are/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Business](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/business/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d69/ken-liu-4222_business_history-is-a-narrative-enterprise-and-th_1215183.jpg)

> [“One way to understand fiction is to treat every story as an attempt to make an argument (Helena Bell has written more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/one-way-to-understand-fiction-is-to-treat-every-story-as-an-attempt/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Way of thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way-of-thinking/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e20/ken-liu-4222_way-of-thinking_one-way-to-understand-fiction-is-to-trea_2099648.jpg)

> [“Every act of communication is a miracle of translation. At this moment, in this place, the shifting action potentials in my neurons…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/every-act-of-communication-is-a-miracle-of-translation-at-this-moment/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Another time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/another-time/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf9/ken-liu-4222_another-time_every-act-of-communication-is-a-miracle_1096800.jpg)

> [“Ever since I became an American, people have told me that America is about leaving your past behind. I’ve never understood that.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/ever-since-i-became-an-american-people-have-told-me-that-america-is/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[American people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/american-people/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fc0/ken-liu-4222_american-people_ever-since-i-became-an-american-people-h_2404850.jpg)

> [“Look up at the stars, and we are bombarded by light generated on the day the last victim at Pingfang died, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/look-up-at-the-stars-and-we-are-bombarded-by-light-generated-on-the/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Auschwitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/auschwitz/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fed/ken-liu-4222_every-moment_look-up-at-the-stars-and-we-are-bombarde_1861502.jpg)

> [“The Tull-Toks claim that everything in the universe can be read. Each star is a living text, where the massive convection currents…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ken-liu/the-tull-toks-claim-that-everything-in-the-universe-can-be-read-each/)

[Ken Liu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ken-liu/)

[Astronomy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/astronomy/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/29b/ken-liu-4222_astronomy_the-tull-toks-claim-that-everything-in-t_1361720.jpg)

## Ken Liu by topic

[Books (16)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/ken-liu/) [Time (15)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/ken-liu/) [Fiction (15)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fiction/ken-liu/) [Writing (12)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/ken-liu/) [Writer (11)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writer/ken-liu/)

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                        "text": "In creating the silkpunk aesthetic, I was influenced by the ideas of W. Brian Arthur, who articulates a vision of technology as a language.",
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                        "text": "The way a story makes an argument is quite different from the way a persuasive essay does it. Emotional truth and the logic of metaphors dominate.",
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                        "text": "“ For every ebb there’s a flow; for every flow there’s an ebb. The full moon must wane just as the new moon must wax. Happiness turns to sorrow; sorrow is reborn as hope. There is nothing constant but change in the Tide, and I am Change. ”",
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                        "text": "'The Grace of Kings' draws on Western traditions as much as it does on Chinese traditions, though the bones of the story are drawn from the Chu-Han Contention period before the Han Dynasty.",
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                        "text": "I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author has a specific critique about contemporary society in mind, fiction tends not to be the best means to deliver that critique.",
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                        "text": "I certainly have been writing stories that are hard science fiction, that are very reminiscent of 'Golden Age tales' from the '40s and '50s. I've also written stories that are very high fantasy that are the direct opposite of that style.",
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                        "text": "Researching real history has taught me to be bolder and more imaginative in building fantasy worlds and writing fantasy characters, to seek out the margins of history and the forgotten tales that illuminate the whole, complex truth of our flawed yet wondrous nature as a species.",
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                        "text": "People who are ambitious - politicians who crave power - think that they're in control of it, but at some point, the movement that they started overtakes them, and they lose the ability to direct things anymore, and they become essentially riders on a wild stallion, and wherever the movement goes, wherever power takes them, they have to go along.",
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                        "text": "The 'Grace of Kings' begins as a very dark, complicated world filled with injustices - among them the oppressed position of women - but gradually transforms into something better through a series of revolutions. But since real social change takes a long time, even by the end of the book, only the seeds of deep change have been planted.",
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                        "text": "My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're based on history, just like 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey' are based on history, but they're romanticized, and a lot of fantasy elements have been added.",
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                        "text": "“He’s not so bad, he thought. He’s graceful in defeat. That’s a quality that belongs to a phoenix among men. • • • “What’s so impressive about that? I never get mad when my father beats me at checkers. I know I just have to get better.” “Those are wise words. Not everyone sees a loss as an opportunity.”",
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                        "text": "“To see the light side and the dark side of the Force as sunlit foam and shadowed eddies in the same Tide; to accept that the Force has a greater will than the individual; to trust that sometimes to yield is not to surrender but to dissolve the ego in the grand web that connects all to all.”",
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                        "text": "For 'The Grace of Kings,' I read Han Dynasty historical records in Classical Chinese, which allowed me to get a sense of the complexity of the politics and the 'surprisingly modern' reactions of the historical figures to recurrent problems of state administration.",
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                        "text": "The Singaporean speculative tradition is different. Singapore doesn't conceive itself as the centre of the world or the one country that's going to save the world, so there's a different tone that comes out in the way speculative fiction is done. That's refreshing to read.",
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                        "text": "“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. Yet a translator must also balance fidelity to the source, aptness of expression, and beauty of style. The best translations into English do not, in fact, read as if they were originally written in English. The English words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture's patterns of thinking, hears an echo of another language's rhythms and cadences, and feels a tremor of another people's gestures and movements.”",
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                        "text": "“You think destroying Centillion will free you, whatever ‘free’ means. But let me ask you, can you tell me the requirements for starting a new business in the State of New York?” Sai opened his mouth and realized that his instinct was to ask Tilly. He closed his mouth again. “What’s your mother’s phone number?” Sai resisted the urge to reach for his phone. “How about you tell me what happened in the world yesterday? What book did you buy and enjoy three years ago? When did you start dating your last girlfriend?” Sai said nothing. “You see? Without Tilly, you can’t do your job, you can’t remember your life, you can’t even call your mother. We are now a race of cyborgs. We long ago began to spread our minds into the electronic realm, and it is no longer possible to squeeze all of ourselves back into our brains. The electronic copies of yourselves that you wanted to destroy are, in a literal sense, actually you.”",
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                        "text": "“History is a narrative enterprise, and the telling of stories that are true, that affirm and explain our existence, is the fundamental task of the historian. But truth is delicate, and it has many enemies. Perhaps that is why, although we academics are supposedly in the business of pursuing the truth, the word “truth” is rarely uttered without hedges, adornments, and qualifications. Every time we tell a story about a great atrocity, like the Holocaust or Pingfang, the forces of denial are always ready to pounce, to erase, to silence, to forget. History has always been difficult because of the delicacy of the truth, and denialists have always been able to resort to labeling the truth as fiction. One has to be careful, whenever one tells a story about a great injustice. We are a species that loves narrative, but we have also been taught not to trust an individual speaker. Yes, it is true that no nation, and no historian, can tell a story that completely encompasses every aspect of the truth. But it is not true that just because all narratives are constructed, that they are equally far from the truth. The Earth is neither a perfect sphere nor a flat disk, but the model of the sphere is much closer to the truth. Similarly, there are some narratives that are closer to the truth than others, and we must always try to tell a story that comes as close to the truth as is humanly possible. The fact that we can never have complete, perfect knowledge does not absolve us of the moral duty to judge and to take a stand against evil.”",
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                        "text": "“One way to understand fiction is to treat every story as an attempt to make an argument (Helena Bell has written more extensively about this concept). That feels like a natural fit with my way of thinking, colored by my experiences as a lawyer. But the “message” in fiction is harder to pin down than the “message” in a brief or essay, for the ways in which stories attempt to persuade are different from the ways in which traditional rhetoric attempts to persuade. I would say that my stories do make an argument about my view of the world, but it is a view that resists easy summation; I find the most effective way to communicate that argument is through fiction. An argument made through fiction can be subtler and more tolerant of ambivalence, more cognizant of emotion and more accommodating of uncertainty; but, because of these advantages, such an argument also tends to lose precision and can be open to (mis)interpretation. Sometimes, a reader will dismiss a work because the argument is too at odds with the reader’s own assumptions (hence the resistance to so-called “message” stories); other times, a reader will not even perceive the argument because their own stance and interpretive lens will not even allow them to see that their assumptions are being challenged.”",
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                        "text": "“Every act of communication is a miracle of translation. At this moment, in this place, the shifting action potentials in my neurons cascade into certain arrangements, patterns, thoughts; they flow down my spine, branch into my arms, my fingers, until muscles twitch and thought is translated into motion; mechanical levers are pressed; electrons are rearranged; marks are made on paper. At another time, in another place, light strikes the marks, reflects into a pair of high precision optical instruments sculpted by nature after billions of years of random mutations; upside-down images are formed against two screens made up of millions of light-sensitive cells, which translate light into electrical pulses that go up optic nerves, cross the chasm, down the optic tracts, and into the visual cortex, where the pulses are reassembled into letters, punctuation marks, words, sentences, vehicles, tenors, thoughts. The entire system seems fragile, preposterous, science fictional. Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe. And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.”",
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                        "text": "“Ever since I became an American, people have told me that America is about leaving your past behind. I’ve never understood that. You can no more leave behind your past than you can leave behind your skin. The compulsion to delve into the past, to speak for the dead, to recover their stories: that’s part of who Evan was, and why I loved him. Just the same, my grandfather is part of who I am, and what he did, he did in the name of my mother and me and my children. I am responsible for his sins, in the same way that I take pride in inheriting the tradition of a great people, a people who, in my grandfather’s time, committed great evil. In an extraordinary time, he faced extraordinary choices, and maybe some would say this means that we cannot judge him. But how can we really judge anyone except in the most extraordinary of circumstances? It’s easy to be civilized and display a patina of orderliness in calm times, but your true character only emerges in darkness and under great pressure: is it a diamond or merely a lump of the blackest coal? Yet, my grandfather was not a monster. He was simply a man of ordinary moral courage whose capacity for great evil was revealed to his and my lasting shame. Labeling someone a monster implies that he is from another world, one which has nothing to do with us. It cuts off the bonds of affection and fear, assures us of our own superiority, but there’s nothing learned, nothing gained. It’s simple, but it’s cowardly. I know now that only by empathizing with a man like my grandfather can we understand the depth of the suffering he caused. There are no monsters. The monster is us.”",
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                        "text": "“Look up at the stars, and we are bombarded by light generated on the day the last victim at Pingfang died, the day the last train arrived at Auschwitz, the day the last Cherokee walked out of Georgia. And we know that the inhabitants of those distant worlds, if they are watching, will see those moments, in time, as they stream from here to there at the speed of light. It is not possible to capture all of those photons, to erase all of those images. They are our permanent record, the testimony of our existence, the story that we tell the future. Every moment, as we walk on this earth, we are watched and judged by the eyes of the universe. For far too long, historians, and all of us, have acted as exploiters of the dead. But the past is not dead. It is with us. Everywhere we walk, we are bombarded by fields of Bohm-Kirino particles that will let us see the past like looking through a window. The agony of the dead is with us, and we hear their screams and walk among their ghosts. We cannot avert our eyes or plug up our ears. We must bear witness and speak for those who cannot speak. We have only one chance to get it right.”",
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                        "text": "“The Tull-Toks claim that everything in the universe can be read. Each star is a living text, where the massive convection currents of superheated gas tell an epic drama, with the starspots serving as punctuation, the coronal loops extended figures of speech, and the flares emphatic passages that ring true in the deep silence of cold space. Each planet contains a poem, written out in the bleak, jagged, staccato rhythm of bare rocky cores or the lyrical, lingering, rich rhymes—both masculine and feminine—of swirling gas giants. And then there are the planets with life, constructed like intricate jeweled clockwork, containing a multitude of self-referential literary devices that echo and re-echo without end.”",
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