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

Adam Johnson

All the lessons you need to learn in life, he said, will be taught to you by your enemy.
ADAM JOHNSON

All Enemy Lesson Life Need Taught
[I]n communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.
ADAM JOHNSON

Bribe Communism Dog Obedience Obtained Socialism Threaten
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

Action Censored Character Essential Human Punish State
And 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 JOHNSON

Change Conflict Important Paino Practsing Secretly Story Wise
Had she never been hungry enough to eat a flower? Did she not know that you could eat daisies, daylilies, pansies, and marigolds?
ADAM JOHNSON

Daisies Eat Flower Hungry Life Marigold never Pansies Rose
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.
ADAM JOHNSON

Attention Book Current Focused Light Share Thinking Topic
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

Character Conscripted Country Job Opposite Secondary Story Written
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

Come Create Fictional Idea Inspiration Mysterious Narrative Sense Stories Visible Write
. . . nobody every taught you loyalty . . .
ADAM JOHNSON

Every Loyalty Nobody Taught
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

Anything Character Good Hard Process Story Work Writing
Use your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past.
ADAM JOHNSON

Future Imagination never Past Present Use
In my experience, ghosts are made up only of the living, people you know are out there but are forever out of range
ADAM JOHNSON

Experience Forever Ghost Living Only People Range
Imagine a world in which no writer has written a literary novel in sixty years.
ADAM JOHNSON

Book Character City Imagine Literary Novel World Written Year
Still, I’d thought I’d had a unique look at North Korea, only to discover I was wrong.
ADAM JOHNSON

Country Discover Look Still Unique Wrong
Today, 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 JOHNSON

Before Gone Match Nothing Out Strike Ten Thousand Today Tomorrow
To 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 JOHNSON

Alive Always Face Heart Inside Matter Part Someone

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

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

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Popular Authors

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