34 Ken Liu Quotes for You to Enjoy

Ken Liu

American Writer

Born: 1976

Chinese Me Science Think Writing You

Related authors: Dale Carnegie Denis Waitley Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Ray Bradbury W. E. B. Du Bois William Arthur Ward

I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author has a specific critique about contemporary society in mind, fiction tends not to be the best means to deliver that critique. Ken Liu

Best Writing Mind Long Society Enough Critique About Tends Deliver Know Contemporary Contemporary Society Been Very Mode Author Fiction Rhetorical Means Works Specific Differently

The idea that somehow the way forward is to abandon the past, to me, is preposterous and both undesirable and unrealistic. Ken Liu

Me Past Way Abandon Somehow Unrealistic Both Idea Undesirable Forward

It's true that misunderstanding and lack of understanding are often themes in my fiction, but I am grateful for the moments when true understanding is achieved, especially between writer and reader. It's miraculous. Ken Liu

Grateful Understanding Miraculous Writer True Between Reader Misunderstanding Am Lack Often Achieved Fiction Themes Moments

The Singaporean speculative tradition is different. Singapore doesn't conceive itself as the centre of the world or the one country that's going to save the world, so there's a different tone that comes out in the way speculative fiction is done. That's refreshing to read. Ken Liu

Real history is far more complex and interesting than the simplistic summaries presented in Wikipedia articles. Knowing this allows you to question received wisdom, to challenge 'facts' 'everybody' knows to be true, and to imagine worlds and characters worthy of our rich historical heritage and our complex selves. Ken Liu

Wisdom History You Challenge Be True Rich Heritage Everybody Wikipedia Worlds Our Complex Characters Worthy More Facts Simplistic True Knowing Knows Real Question Historical Selves Than Articles Interesting Far Received Presented Imagine

Translation is an act of recreation. Ken Liu

Translation Recreation Act

My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is. Ken Liu

It is not possible to completely eliminate mediation between you as an observer and the history you are trying to understand. Ken Liu

History You Possible Observer Between Understand Trying Mediation Eliminate

The 'silk' in silkpunk refers not to a source of power, but to an entirely different, expressive technology language. Ken Liu

Technology Language Power Silk Entirely Source Different Expressive

The evolution of technology is, like the evolution of literature, heavily path-dependent. Culture plays a far more important role in the acceptance, adoption, and spread of technology than many of us are willing to acknowledge. Ken Liu

Technology Acceptance Culture Important Evolution Willing Adoption More Like Important Role Spread Than Role Acknowledge Literature Far Us Many Plays

I think the narrative of people being caught between two cultures as immigrants is very harmful. It's exclusionary. It essentially tries to argue that some Americans are more real than others. Ken Liu

Writers are naturally obsessed with books, the tangible artifacts of their labor. Even beyond the text, I love the physicality of books, the possibilities presented by their substance and form. Ken Liu

Love Books Possibilities Physicality Writers Obsessed Beyond Tangible Text Labor Substance Form Naturally Even Presented

We have never had a society that was truly just. Some groups have always benefited at the expense of others. Ken Liu

Society Others Some Never Had Always Truly Expense Just Groups

The 'Grace of Kings' begins as a very dark, complicated world filled with injustices - among them the oppressed position of women - but gradually transforms into something better through a series of revolutions. But since real social change takes a long time, even by the end of the book, only the seeds of deep change have been planted. Ken Liu

Time Change Women Book Grace World Complicated Dark Better Long Long Time Seeds Kings Something Only Through Takes Since Real Been Oppressed End Very Begins Revolutions Gradually Social Them Social Change Planted Deep Even Series Filled Among Injustices Position

What is fascinating to me is the way I view everything in terms of parallels and connections. When I read about Achilles and Odysseus in Homer's 'Iliad,' I can see parallels in Chinese historical romances, in the way the first emperor of the Han dynasty and his chief rival are portrayed. Ken Liu

Me First Everything Way Parallels See About Rival Emperor Terms Read His Historical Chief Romances Achilles Dynasty Chinese View Iliad Fascinating Connections Homer Portrayed

When I act as a translator, I am really doing a performance for my fellow Anglophone readers in the West. Ken Liu

Performance Fellow Readers Am Doing West Really Translator Act

For 'The Grace of Kings,' I read Han Dynasty historical records in Classical Chinese, which allowed me to get a sense of the complexity of the politics and the 'surprisingly modern' reactions of the historical figures to recurrent problems of state administration. Ken Liu

The way that China has been described in Western narratives makes it hard to tell a story that will escape the stereotypes and allow people to perceive it fresh. Ken Liu

People Will Way Tell Has-Been Perceive Allow Stereotypes Makes Fresh Narratives Been Western Escape Story China Hard

I was a tax attorney for something like seven years, so I was a tax geek. I was really into it. Tax is one of those things that people think is incredibly boring, but like any science about systems, once you get into it it, becomes incredibly intricate and interesting. Ken Liu

You Science People Think Incredibly Seven Once Those Intricate Systems Geek Boring About Something Like Attorney Becomes Years Get Any Tax Interesting Really Things

Because I really love tax, tax topics actually feature quite a lot in my fiction of various lengths. I once wrote a science fiction short story centered around the idea of an alien tax code, and the idea that you can understand a society by parsing its tax code. Ken Liu

Love You Science Alien Society Once Topics Various Feature Idea Wrote Because Science Fiction Around Understand Lot Quite Quite A Lot Short Tax Fiction Tax Code Short Story Centered Story Really Code Actually

I'm not sure I necessarily have explicit messages. Ken Liu

Messages Sure Explicit Necessarily

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