Latest Yiyun Li Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• You can write about a country without taking a stand, but you cannot write about a country without noting that there's history, and that there's politics going on. To me, that's the same if you write about America. You don't have to write about politics, but the politics have to be present in the characters.

  Yiyun Li

  Country, Writing, Character

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• If I didn't self-censor, I would be in jail, and then I wouldn't be effective at all.

  Yiyun Li

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• There is a certain amount of politeness here in America, which is probably more than just politeness.

  Yiyun Li

  Politeness

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I think the isolation in China also has to do with people's memories being wiped out, collective memories as well as individual memories, by the fact that the recent history has been constantly rewritten and revised.

  Yiyun Li

  Memories, Thinking, Isolation

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Overall there may be less censorship in America than in China, but censorship and self-censorship are not only from political pressure, but also pressures from other places in a society.

  Yiyun Li

  Political, Censorship

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Horrible that you could write in a language so well, but have nothing meaningful to say.

  Yiyun Li

  Meaningful, Writing, Language

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• It is a Chinese tradition that everyone has to be in everyone else's life.

  Yiyun Li

  Chinese, Tradition

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I think our eyes are trained to look for what we want to see.

  Yiyun Li

  Eye, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Why do I write about China? That is a very good question. I think there are questions about China that I haven't been able to answer. The reason I write is that there are questions to which I want to find answers - or I want to find questions beyond those questions.

  Yiyun Li

  Writing, Thinking, Reason

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Everybody contributes something to the system, and everybody suffers from the system.

  Yiyun Li

  Suffering

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• There are people who are willing to work within the system, and people who don't want to work with the system at all.

  Yiyun Li

  People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Some people in China don't look at freedom of speech as an abstract ideal, but more as a means to an end.

  Yiyun Li

  Mean, People, Freedom Of Speech

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• No one is immune from either taking the wrong action or not taking action at all, but the sense that something is completely out of a person's control is stronger in China.

  Yiyun Li

  Stronger, Action, Taking Action

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Chinese people don't care about freedom, but they do care about justice.

  Yiyun Li

  People, Justice, Chinese

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• In China, your freedom is always limited, but this limitation applies to almost everyone. If someone does injustice to you, though, you have to find a way to avenge yourself - even by illegal measures. In a sense, injustice is more personal. This idea has always been in Chinese history. I think we read about freedom of speech, or lack of freedom of speech, in China so often. But I don't think people here in America think about how justice, or the idea of justice, is so important in a Chinese setting. It's probably more important than freedom of speech in the Chinese mindset at this moment.

  Yiyun Li

  Thinking, People, Justice

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I always tell my students to go back after a hundred pages and rewrite from the beginning. It's really harder if you've already finished four hundred pages and realize the first hundred aren't working.

  Yiyun Li

  Four, Pages, Firsts

  Source: therumpus.net

• One easy mistake to make with the first novel is to expand the short story. Some things are better as a story; you cannot dilute things into a novel. I think the first hundred pages of a novel are very important. That's where you set things up: the world, the characters. Once you've set that up, it'll be much easier.

  Yiyun Li

  Mistake, Character, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

• Regarding heroism, I grew up in a culture where you learn about heroes and heroines all the time. In a way, when you call someone a hero or heroine, it's the same as calling them a villain.

  Yiyun Li

  Hero, Culture, Calling

  Source: therumpus.net

• Your characters are always your children. And while you are writing, you're keeping them safe. Now they're ready to go into the world and it's sad. I'm happy with the way the novel came out but all the characters' ending really saddened me.

  Yiyun Li

  Children, Writing, Character

  Source: therumpus.net

• In film, you have to present everything on the screen so it's the opposite of what I usually do with storytelling. It forced me to think about how people walk, where they sit at that moment. With Princess of Nebraska, it was just fun to watch because the movie was so far from the story. It was very much a different story.

  Yiyun Li

  Fun, Princess, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net