Gish Jen Quotes

• Anything is possible. A man is what he makes up his mind to be.

  Gish Jen

  Men, Mind, Anything Is Possible

  Gish Jen (2014). “Typical American”, p.194, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  45 Copy quote

• Whatever I do in life, I'm almost always aware that there's another way to do it.

  Gish Jen

  Way, Another Way

  "Interview with Gish Jen: Tiger Writer". Interview With Jennifer Haupt, www.psychologytoday.com. December 1, 2013.

  13 Copy quote

• A man was the sum of his limits; freedom only made him see how much so.

  Gish Jen

  Men, Limits, Made

  "Typical American". Book by Gish Jen, 1991.

  8 Copy quote

• It's human to hear stories and to know how people live and to imagine how that is for them. It's very interdependent!

  Gish Jen

  People, Stories, Imagine

  Source: therumpus.net

  8 Copy quote

• That there should be a purpose to suffering, that a person should be chosen for it, special - these are houses of the mind, in which whole peoples have found shelter.

  Gish Jen

  House, Mind, Suffering

  Gish Jen (2014). “Typical American”, p.54, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  6 Copy quote

• I think that there is a bias in the current literary climate, which is not only very Western but very male.

  Gish Jen

  Thinking, Climate, Males

  Source: therumpus.net

  9 Copy quote

• When I think about why I would be a writer, why I should continue to be a writer, it seems to me one of the few things you can dowhere you're never bored.

  Gish Jen

  Thinking, Boredom, Would Be

  10 Copy quote

• I like to listen. I'm much more interested in listening than in speaking, for sure.

  Gish Jen

  Listening

  Source: therumpus.net

  11 Copy quote

• I'm trying to give people an idea of what black looks like and what white looks like before I introduce them to gray.

  Gish Jen

  Ideas, White, People

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• A white person was by definition somebody. Other people needed, across their hearts, one steel rib.

  Gish Jen

  Heart, White, Racism

  9 Copy quote

• I hate to generalize because there are always so many exceptions to any rule.

  Gish Jen

  Hate, I Hate, Exception

  "Interview with Gish Jen: Tiger Writer". Interview With Jennifer Haupt, www.psychologytoday.com. December 1, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

• ... there is ... a big aspect of play in writing novels, and making the story more and more elaborate is just more and more fun.

  Gish Jen

  Fun, Writing, Play

  10 Copy quote

• It's a matter of whether you see the self as fundamentally in relationship to other selves or not - whether you see the boundary between self and the world as relatively permeable, which makes you "interdependent" (collectivist) in outlook, or relatively impermeable, which makes you "independent" (individualistic).

  Gish Jen

  Independent, Self, World

  "Interview with Gish Jen: Tiger Writer". Interview with Jennifer Haupt, www.psychologytoday.com. December 1, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

• Chinese language tends to be quick, economical. To know what people are saying, you always need to know what the context is.

  Gish Jen

  People, Chinese, Needs

  Source: therumpus.net

  7 Copy quote

• The independents are the ones who tend to commit suicide. I'm not against this way of being in the world. Individuals have brought us many treasures. You can't just say that's a bad way of being in the world - it's not. But it's not everyone's way of being in the world.

  Gish Jen

  Suicide, World, Treasure

  Source: therumpus.net

  7 Copy quote

• For students who are in the most creative group in America to somehow be presumed to be narrow is just completely meshugga.

  Gish Jen

  America, Creative, Groups

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

• Many women tend toward the interdependent end of things, we tend to see ourselves in relationship to others to a far greater degree than men.

  Gish Jen

  Men, Degrees, Ends

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

  4 Copy quote

• These are ideas that work for many, and that may well reflect your true understanding of life.

  Gish Jen

  Ideas, Understanding, May

  "Interview with Gish Jen: Tiger Writer". Interview With Jennifer Haupt, www.psychologytoday.com. December 1, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• There's nothing about interdependence that would keep somebody from making art.

  Gish Jen

  Art, Interdependence

  Source: therumpus.net

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Maxine Hong Kingston

Chang-Rae Lee

Jessica Hagedorn

Amy Tan

Shirley Geok-lin Lim

Stuart Dybek

Jhumpa Lahiri

Ha Jin