Celeste Ng Quotes

• You don't feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.

  Celeste Ng

  Make You Happy, Force, Feels

  46 Copy quote

• The writer's job, after all, is not to dictate meaning, but to give the reader enough pieces to create his or her own satisfying meaning. The story is truly finished—and meaning is made—not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters the story and fills that little ambiguous space, completing the circuit, letting the power flow through.

  Celeste Ng

  Jobs, Space, Giving

  13 Copy quote

• What made something precious? Losing it and finding it.

  Celeste Ng

  Losing, Made, Findings

  Celeste Ng (2014). “Everything I Never Told You: A Novel”, p.280, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

• I would never tell myself, you have to write 20 pages today or something. But I do try to show up. Read what I wrote, fix things.

  Celeste Ng

  Writing, Trying, Pages

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  7 Copy quote

• After a while, the fear became a habit, too.

  Celeste Ng

  Habit

  Celeste Ng (2014). “Everything I Never Told You: A Novel”, p.46, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• I am in a mixed race marriage myself, and I have a mixed race son....The racial perception interest is probably always going to be there to some extent.

  Celeste Ng

  Son, Race, Perception

  Interview With Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• I think this is something that is naturally built in in people, a need for attention and a need to be special and we are always trying to find a balance.

  Celeste Ng

  Thinking, Always Trying, People

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  6 Copy quote

• I am very active on Twitter and one thing that keeps popping up is "How do I balance having a kid and writing?" And I know it should not be as aggravating, but I know no one ever asks a male writer that. Or, any male that.

  Celeste Ng

  Writing, Kids, Balance

  Interview With Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. January 22, 2016.

  7 Copy quote

• Being asked, "Where are you REALLY from?" It makes one feel OTHERED.

  Celeste Ng

  Feels

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• If you told people you were moving to Ohio, they wouldn't congratulate you. They'd say "OH WHY would you move there?" as if that was something that happened to you and you had to deal with.

  Celeste Ng

  Moving, Ohio, People

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  7 Copy quote

• When you mention to people growing up in Cleveland they bring up the river catching on fire, or LeBron James leaving, they have these references, but no one imagines ending up there.

  Celeste Ng

  Growing Up, Fire, Catching On

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  8 Copy quote

• They never discussed it, but both came to understand it as a promise: he would always make sure there was a place for her. She would always be able to say, Someone is coming. I am not alone.

  Celeste Ng

  Life, Promise, Able

  7 Copy quote

• There is something about Midwest in general, that has kind of an underdog quality.

  Celeste Ng

  Quality, Underdog, Midwest

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• If a news camera shows up, people will line up, they want to be seen. But at the same time they want both to be chosen and not singled out. I think that is an endless struggle within most.

  Celeste Ng

  Struggle, Thinking, People

  "BYT Interviews: Celeste Ng". Interview with Svetlana Legetic, brightestyoungthings.com. February 22, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

• The people are maybe still as aware of the differences but they are more accepting of it that what we saw in the 70s and 80s, but the undercurrent is still there. There are maybe no racial slurs anymore, no firecrackers in mailboxes, the distinction is much more subtle.

  Celeste Ng

  Differences, People, Saws

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'd like to think of my self as not melancholic at all, I think I'm a pretty cheerful person, really.

  Celeste Ng

  Thinking, Self, Cheerful

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Brad Listi

Anthony Doerr

Karen Abbott

Carolyn Parkhurst

Jenny Offill

Matthew Thomas

Roxane Gay

Joshua Ferris