But, in North Korea, it’s just the opposite. There’s one story. It’s written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are conscripted to be secondary characters.
ADAM JOHNSON
That hungry enough, a person could consume the bright faces of violas, even the stems of dandelions and the bitter hips of roses?
More Adam Johnson Quotes
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But, in North Korea, it’s just the opposite. There’s one story. It’s written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are conscripted to be secondary characters.
ADAM JOHNSON -
All the human actions we think of as essential to a character – had be censored by the self lest they be punished by the state.
ADAM JOHNSON -
The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.
ADAM JOHNSON -
Conjure up all the strength you have and drive through whatever it is keeping you on your knees. Build up the strength and your knees may never buckle again!
ADAM JOHNSON -
What good’s a captive without her captor?
ADAM JOHNSON -
Imagine a place where not a single person has read a book that is truly about the character at its center.
ADAM JOHNSON -
I’d known that the visit would be highly scripted and that genuine interactions with citizens wouldn’t be possible, since it’s illegal for them to speak with foreigners.
ADAM JOHNSON -
That hungry enough, a person could consume the bright faces of violas, even the stems of dandelions and the bitter hips of roses?
ADAM JOHNSON -
[I]n communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.
ADAM JOHNSON -
I am a champion standing over the shadow of my former self.
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Writing is hard work, and if anything’s true about the process, it’s that fact that a good story is hard to find and even trickier to get on paper.
ADAM JOHNSON -
But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can’t live with what they’ve done.
ADAM JOHNSON -
The urge to create a fictional narrative is a mysterious one, and when an idea comes, the writer’s sense of what a story wants to be is only vaguely visible through the penumbra of inspiration.
ADAM JOHNSON -
Like putting a name to my problems would solve anything
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Once the dust clears you will be standing tall, a champion, a victor. NOTHING will be able to knock you down once you’ve taken the biggest hits this life has to offer, so come on life, BRING IT!
ADAM JOHNSON -
Still, I’d thought I’d had a unique look at North Korea, only to discover I was wrong.
ADAM JOHNSON