“The death of dictator Kim Jong-Il has cast all eyes on North Korea, a country without literature or freedom or truth.”

There, as a youth, your aptitude towards certain jobs is measured, and the rest of your life is dictated, whether you’ll be a fisherman or a farmer or an opera singer.

But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can’t live with what they’ve done.

The next day, she was silent. For breakfast, she murdered an onion and served it raw.

Like putting a name to my problems would solve anything

What good’s a captive without her captor?

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.

[I]n communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.

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.

I thought that, with so much current attention focused on the topic of North Korea, I might share what I think are three books which cast a rare light on the elusive realm of North Korea.

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.

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!

I am a champion standing over the shadow of my former self.

Life brings what it brings. I might be young but I’ve learnt this: prepare for each blind corner with your strongest shoulder dropped, ready to smash through whatever is thrown at you next.

Imagine a place where not a single person has read a book that is truly about the character at its center.

“A name isn’t a person.” Ga said. “Don’t ever remember someone by their name.

Orphans are the only ones who get to choose their fathers, and they love them twice as much.

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

How far must a Christian go in order to be saved? Only to the Cross. But if I am disobeying God in my life and cast off His law.

C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.

So yes, I can absolutely see myself cast as Agent Mom.

The opening-night audience is mostly friends of the cast and backers of the show, and they cometo applaud their money.

My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.

Only I can’t do them so I ended up on my ass followed by the most unsightly backward roll out of it, followed by the cast falling over in laughter and a good portion of the audience too.

I can’t imagine that I would have been cast in the role, without Jamie Lee giving me a thumbs up.