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 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 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 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 JOHNSONOrphans are the only ones who get to choose their fathers, and they love them twice as much.
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 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 JOHNSONA good story feels both surprising and inevitable, fresh and familiar.
ADAM JOHNSONImagine a place where not a single person has read a book that is truly about the character at its center.
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 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 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 JOHNSONFor an entire populace, change, growth, and spontaneity were dangerous.
ADAM JOHNSONI know it really sounds cheesy, but I did feel a duty to try to tell the stories of people who couldn’t speak for themselves.
ADAM JOHNSON[I]n communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.
ADAM JOHNSONWriting 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 JOHNSONStill, I’d thought I’d had a unique look at North Korea, only to discover I was wrong.
ADAM JOHNSON