49 Hanya Yanagihara Quotes for You to Enjoy

Hanya Yanagihara

American Novelist

Life People Think Work Writing You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

In Mumbai, the air is saltier. The sea is roilier. The traffic is snarlier. The pinks are pinker. The ostentation is crazier. Hanya Yanagihara

Air Traffic Crazier Sea Mumbai Ostentation

The first thing I do whenever I go to Thailand is seek out the closest restaurant or stall selling mango-and-sticky rice: it's a little hillock of glutinous rice drenched in lashings of coconut milk and served with fresh mango. Hanya Yanagihara

First Out Restaurant Seek First Thing Fresh Go Selling Thailand Closest The First Thing Whenever Little Rice Stall Coconut Milk Served Thing

The term 'pashmina' is often used interchangeably with 'cashmere,' but in reality, pashmina is a specific type of very fine, lofty cashmere, woven from a specific type of goat - one indigenous to northern India, Nepal, and Pakistan, and harvested and woven there as well. Hanya Yanagihara

Reality Type Lofty Nepal India Woven Fine Indigenous Term Well Goat Very Northern Often Used Pakistan Specific

Misanthropy is born, I think, out of an almost oppressive sense of loneliness, a conviction that there's no one on earth who understands you. I don't think misanthropes hate people: They hate that people hate them. Hanya Yanagihara

Loneliness You Hate People Sense Conviction Think Earth Out Born No-One Almost Understands Oppressive Them Who

Life will end in death and unhappiness, but we do it anyway. Hanya Yanagihara

Life Death Will End Anyway Unhappiness

I do have the sense that, although there may be no one way to write a novel, there are many novelists who are in fact part of some sort of larger literary community, whether in the form of a writing group or an MFA program, to name two of the more common forms. Hanya Yanagihara

Writing Sense Community Group Way Some One-Way More Fact Write No-One Part Name Sort Although May Common In Fact Form Literary Whether Forms Who Many Novel Novelists Larger Two Program

I'd be far too self-conscious and insecure if I suspected my editor might be a better novelist than I. Hanya Yanagihara

Better Too Insecure Self-Conscious Editor Than Suspected Might Far Novelist

I've always thought that one of the least successful encounters is meeting a writer one admires. For one thing, writers are generally much kinder, more empathetic, more generous people on the page than they are in person. Hanya Yanagihara

I wanted to write a story about colonization and about Hawaii. I went to college right at the height of identity politics, and that's how I always read 'The Tempest,' for example. Hanya Yanagihara

Politics College Example Tempest About Colonization Hawaii Write For Example Identity Read Always How Wanted Story Height Right

What makes a fulfilling relationship or fulfilling life is not simply found in another. It's found in a group of others. Hanya Yanagihara

Life Relationship Group Others Simply Another Makes Fulfilling Found

I think that fiction writers can write about anyone. If you are writing a character, and the only thing they are to you is their otherness, then you haven't written a character. Hanya Yanagihara

Character You Writing Think About Only Write Writers Written Fiction The Only Thing Anyone Fiction Writers Then Thing

We imbue deserts and the tundra with menace because nothing, or little, grows there. Hanya Yanagihara

Nothing Menace Because Little Deserts Grows

Writing is, by its nature, interior work. So being forced to be around people is a great gift for a novelist. You get to be reminded, daily, of how people think, how they speak, how they live; the things they worry about, the things they hope for, the things they fear. Hanya Yanagihara

Work Hope Great Daily Nature You People Writing Speak Interior Gift Fear Live Think Worry Great Gift About Reminded Forced Around How Get Being Novelist Things

If the only thing you knew about Oman was its location, you might never go at all. Hanya Yanagihara

You Location About Only Never Knew Go The Only Thing Might Thing

I was interested about how relationships change as you get older. You are great friends in your 20s. In your 30s, you get married. Your 40s are all about your kids. In your 50s, you get divorced, and your friendships become primary again. Hanya Yanagihara

In novels, and American novels in particular, it's not just about redemption, it's about forward movement and healing oneself. Americans are very big on getting better. Hanya Yanagihara

Healing Better Big About Oneself Particular Redemption Very American Getting Getting Better Just Movement Forward Novels

We tend to talk about death as if it is losing a battle, but that assumes living is winning and dying is not. Hanya Yanagihara

Death Battle Losing Living Assumes About Winning Tend Talk Dying

When you have very lax parents, you tend to get more conservative kids. Hanya Yanagihara

You Conservative Parents Kids More Lax Tend Very Get

There's something nice and intimate about having a book. You know that someone's actually gone on this journey. You know that someone has actually researched and reported all these things. You can see and hear their tone in what they chosen to include and what they haven't. Hanya Yanagihara

Journey You Book Gone Nice Intimate See About Someone Something Having Know Hear Reported Include Chosen Actually Things Tone

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