Loung Ung

When I arrived in America, though I had left the war physically far behind, in my mind, the soldiers were still chasing…

— Loung Ung

When I approach a more mature age, I am not going to live in America. Visiting my grandmother, when she was 94,…

— Loung Ung

“On previous trips the pirates have stolen valuables, killed people, raped and abducted girls...the women work frantically to ugly themselves up by…

— Loung Ung

To all the survivors out there, I want them to know that we are stronger and more resilient than we ever knew.…

— Loung Ung

From 1975 to 1979 - through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor - the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million…

— Loung Ung

“Living life to the fullest involves living it with your family.”

— Loung Ung

“This is what the war has done to me. Now I want to destroy because of it. There is such hate and…

— Loung Ung

“I have to go to the toilet,” I tell Ma urgently after dinner. “You have to go in the woods.” “But where?”…

— Loung Ung

For me, choosing happiness has to be something that's conscious, a choice, something I act on. And I think this is something…

— Loung Ung

I am six years old and instead of celebrating with birthday cakes, I chew on a piece of charcoal.

— Loung Ung

In America there's a saying that children should be seen and not heard, .. In Cambodia, children should not be seen nor…

— Loung Ung

I think living in the West, we live in a culture where everybody strives for perfection, whether it's in body, health, spirit,…

— Loung Ung

I think how the world is still somehow beautiful even when I feel no joy at being alive within it.

— Loung Ung

I have my writing therapy. For me, writing and friends therapy is an internal journey where you go in deep, you reflect,…

— Loung Ung

Courage is when you dare to be yourself, in whatever ways you want to be - to not be afraid, to just…

— Loung Ung

Voting is not only our right, it is our power. When we vote, we take back our power to choose, to speak…

— Loung Ung

In my heart I know the truth, but my mind cannot accept the reality of what this all means.

— Loung Ung

“Keav tells me the soldiers claim to love Cambodia and its people very much. I wonder then why they are this mean…

— Loung Ung

As I tell people about genocide, I get the opportunity to redeem myself. I’ve had the chance to do something that’s worth…

— Loung Ung

Choosing happiness is a scary thing. Choosing love is a scary thing. When I was in the war, not only did I…

— Loung Ung