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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

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
[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
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.
ADAM JOHNSON

Dictated Farmer Job Measure Opera Rest Singer Youth
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
Use your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past.
ADAM JOHNSON

Future Imagination never Past Present Use
A good story feels both surprising and inevitable, fresh and familiar.
ADAM JOHNSON

Familiar Fresh Good Inevitable Stories Story
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

Darkness Head Imagination Inside Nothing Real Stories
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
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
What good’s a captive without her captor?
ADAM JOHNSON

Captive Captor Good Question
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’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

Citizen Country Genuine Highly Illegal InterAction Scripted Unique Visit
The death of dictator Kim Jong-Il has cast all eyes on North Korea, a country without literature or freedom or truth.
ADAM JOHNSON

Cast Country Death Dictator Eye Freedom Literature Truth
What’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

Alone Character Edgy Less Little Next Romantic Staring
For an entire populace, change, growth, and spontaneity were dangerous.
ADAM JOHNSON

Change Character Dangerous Entire Growth Populace Self Thinking
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

The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.

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The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you.

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