That hungry enough, a person could consume the bright faces of violas, even the stems of dandelions and the bitter hips of roses?
ADAM JOHNSONThat hungry enough, a person could consume the bright faces of violas, even the stems of dandelions and the bitter hips of roses?
ADAM JOHNSONThe 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 JOHNSONOnce 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 JOHNSONThe next day, she was silent. For breakfast, she murdered an onion and served it raw.
ADAM JOHNSON“A name isn’t a person.” Ga said. “Don’t ever remember someone by their name.
ADAM JOHNSONWhat’s less romantic than staring alone at a blank screen? And edgy? I’ve changed the cat little because I didn’t know what my characters were going to say next.
ADAM JOHNSON[I]n communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.
ADAM JOHNSONImagine a world in which no writer has written a literary novel in sixty years.
ADAM JOHNSONTo keep someone alive, you put them inside you, you put their face on your heart. Then, no matter where you are, they’re always with you because they’re a part of you.”
ADAM JOHNSONImagine a place where not a single person has read a book that is truly about the character at its center.
ADAM JOHNSONToday, tomorrow,” she said. “A day is nothing. A day is just a match you strike after the ten thousand matches before it have gone out.
ADAM JOHNSONUse your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past.
ADAM JOHNSONAnd secretly, he’d be wise to start practicing the piano. For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it is the man who must change.
ADAM JOHNSONWhere we are from… [s]tories are factual. If a farmer is declared a music virtuoso by the state, everyone had better start calling him maestro.
ADAM JOHNSONBut, 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 JOHNSONConjure 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