Top 115 Quotes & Sayings by Celeste Ng - Page 2

Debut novels are difficult because nobody knows you... they just don't find a huge audience, because that's how the market works.

There's this sense that whiteness is the default and does not need to be questioned. That you've got a race if you're black, or any kind of Asian, or any kind of Native American, but that you have no race if you are white.

In fiction you're not often writing about the typical; you are interested in outliers, the points of interest. Part of it comes from feeling I was the only Asian or person of colour... another part comes from my personality: I'm an introvert, and my usual survival mode in a large group is to stand by a wall and watch everybody.

With the first novel, I was concerned I would be pigeon-holed as an Asian-American writer, and the book would be labeled for Asian-Americans only.

I was freelance proof-reading, freelance editing, creating illustrated slides for doctors' presentations - just so I'd have enough money to take the time to write. That's how I got by.

I really wanted to be a poet - until I realized that I really didn't have what it took to be a poet.

Words are an imperfect medium for explaining.

Writers, most of them, don't have a lot of resources.

What I remember about race relations in the 1990s is that you showed your awareness by saying you didn't see race, that you were colour-blind.

Rebecca Solnit is a clarion voice of reason.

I wrote 'Little Fires Everywhere' and sold the book in 2015, still the Obama years. The possibility of a Trump presidency was not on my radar.

I have an interest in the outsider.

I did a lot of weird jobs, like most writers do.

Growing up, I loved looking at the photos in my mother's old Betty Crocker cookbook: the chocolate cakes, the cookie house, even the cheese balls and fondues.

Writing, for me, is an extension of thinking - it's my way of processing, and only when I've gotten something down on the page have I thought through it fully.

With the first novel, I had to tell myself, 'No one is ever going to read it, so you might as well just write it.' With the second, I was pretty sure someone was going to read it.

I have a bad habit of reading more than one book simultaneously!

I wanted to write a book about people who have the best intentions and think - really, truly think - that they're doing the right thing. And then they realize that when those ideals come knocking at their windowsill, a lot of times they will suddenly disavow those ideals.

The proliferation of styles, genres, and media need not be the death knell of anything. Instead, it's a sign that our acceptance for variation and experimentation has become wider, our interests have become more diverse, and our appetites have become more omnivorous.

When my father finished his Ph.D., my mother went back for another bachelor's degree, this time in environmental science.

One of the things I like so much about 'Goodnight Moon' is the way it leaves room for ambiguity.

Writing is like shouting into the world. So when someone shouts back, it's a really big deal. To have people who read hundreds and hundreds of books a year say, 'Hey, we thought this was really great,' that's a huge self-esteem boost.

We have to figure out why we see the world in different ways and then how are we going to adjust so that we can at least still understand each other.

It's incredibly rewarding to have people come up to me at readings and say, 'I'm not Chinese, but this is the relationship I have with my mother.' Or say, 'Your book made me think a lot about my parents, and I've decided to sign up for counseling.' That is mind-boggling.

My husband really treats my writing like it's a job - and he reminds me of that when I have those low moments where I think I should just quit and become a waitress.

My mother ended up getting a Ph.D. of her own, in chemistry, and eventually became a tenured professor.

Honestly, if anyone reads my work, they're doing me a favor, so they get to use whatever words they want to describe it. I can't control that, nor if they like the work, so best not to even try.

In my own work, when I start off writing a scene, I don't know which physical details are going to turn out to be meaningful. But, inevitably, certain images will stand out - you start to decide which ones are important as you go.

I think one of the reasons that I like fiction versus nonfiction is that I myself can kind of disappear from the story.

I'm very much a people pleaser, and the first book had such a devoted and loving following.

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.

What you look for as a reader is somebody who is going to take you and say, 'C'mon. Come into the story. I'm going to show you what there is to see.' The guide who is going to tell you, 'Pay attention over there,' or, 'Do you remember that other thing? Now watch!'

As soon as I could write, I was writing stories.

No reader wants to sit through the same scene four times in a row, unless they're radically different.

You may not be a fan of Twitter-fiction. That's okay. There are novels out there for you - big ones.

My mother is deeply pragmatic by nature. Perhaps you had to be, as an immigrant. You made do.

I'm fascinated by the ways people under repressive regimes still manage to share information - and joy.

Taste is idiosyncratic, so I don't love everything people recommend me, and I don't love everything my friends love.

One of the most fun things for me, as a writer, is when readers ask questions like, 'Oh, I noticed that you have a lot of water and baptism imagery in your book. Did you do that on purpose?'

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

What made something precious? Losing it and finding it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.