Biography
"Vietnamese is so lyrical, and 80% percent of it is derived from Chinese, which is a language built from pictures not words. So this format and voice came out of that desire."
"They're told to gather the stories of their parents and grandparents and to honor their cultural history. And yet, as they're born in the United States, they don't identify with Vietnam and feel strongly that these are not their roots, so how can they lose them?"
"I had no idea how lonely it would be to sit in my cave and type, for years and years. I have developed a totally new personality where I talk to myself and play with my hair for entertainment. The surprise is that after much frustration and exhaustion, I do manage to finish a novel."
"Journalism is just very structured…One day I turned in a story and [an editor] said to me, ‘You can’t compare inanimate objects with animate objects,’ and I realized I had to leave."
"Being stubborn won't make you fluent. Practicing will! The more mistakes you make, the more you'll learn not to."
"I tell you of loss, my child, so you will listen, slowly, and know that in life every emotion is fated to rear itself within your being. Don't judge it proper or ugly. It's simply there and yours. When you should happen to cry, then cry, knowing that just as easily you will laugh again and cry again. Your feelings will enter the currents of your core and there they shall remain"
"I'm trying to tell MiSSSisss WaSShington about our ceremony for Father.But it takes time tomatch every noun and verb,sort all the tenses,remember all the articles,set the tone for every s.MiSSSisss WaSShington saysif every learner waitsto speak perfectly,no one would learna new language.Being stubbornwon't make you fluent.Practicing will!The more mistakes you make,the more you'll learn not to.They laugh."
"No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama."-Inside Out and Back Again"