Yiyun Li
10 quotes
Biography
"I always used to say strongly that I was not an autobiographical writer, so strongly it was clearly suspicious…Even without this book, I can now say that is just a lie."
"I always feel that how people treat animals is not too far from how people treat each other, especially under stress or under certain circumstances…"
"I like to think a thought and then I like to follow it, like a little seed, for a long time and see where that growth leads me. Sometimes it leads me to an entirely different place from where it started and that gives me joy."
"There is a beginning, a middle and an end. And I think for those of us who have crossed borders, the artificial beginning is interesting to me. There is a clear-cut — old life, that’s old country, and there’s new life, new country.…"
"When the dead departed, they took away any falsehoods that they might have allowed us to believe while alive; we who are left behind have to embark on a different life, since the dead are no longer here to help us deceive ourselves."
"A real dreamer must have a mutual trust with time."
"To write about a struggle amidst the struggling: one must hope that the muddling will end someday."
"But the thing is, a wife is a wife and you can't ditch her like a worn shirt after a life."
"Being a mother must be the saddest yet the most hopeful thing in the world, falling into a love that, once started, would never end."
"She wonders if this is what people call falling in love, the desire to be with someone for every minute of the rest of her life so strong that sometimes she is frightened of herself."