Chang-Rae Lee Quotes

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

I'll be honest: 'Badlands' changed my life: it really did rewire my brain as to how film can operate.

Most of us, whether we like it or not, we grow up and start having a different view of what we've done and who we are and where we're going.

When the movie comes to an end, you are not totally the same person you are when you started the movie.

You don't need a new life, just a new lens through which to view the one you have.

Impossible; for how many people did you know who refracted your own light to you?

If you mean to know yourself, interline such of these aphorisms as affect you agreeably in reading, and set a mark to such as left a sense of uneasiness with you; and then show your copy to whom you please.

Where you now stand is a result of thoughts and feelings that you have offered before, but where you are going is a result of your perspective of where you now stand.

You have not been called to change the world, but you have been called to change something.

What I mean is this: you meet someone, you think about them. You're already changing because of the way you think about them. You meet them again, you think about them some more, you're changing again. And on it goes. You are changing right now. Before my eyes.

I write and sing about whatever I am able to understand and feel. I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.

When I was a child, I thought of my Delta town as the center of the universe, but now I realize how little I know about the universe. As a child, I thought I was immortal, but now I recognize how limited a time we all have. As a child, success meant scoring A on every exam, but now I take it to mean good health, close family and friends, achieve- ments in my work, and helping others.

I get very, very, very irritable with people who complain about getting old, because I know a lot of people who would gladly trade places with us. I'm not saying it's easy, I'm not saying it doesn't hurt your feelings, I'm not saying it's not painful - and physically as well as mentally and spiritually - and it's frightening at times. However, people have really lost perspective, and it's a really bizarre topic of conversation that it's become a cultural peg in our world that aging is a bad thing. It's not logical to me.

I was demanding of myself a deeper and greater honesty, more and more revelation in my work in order to give it back to the people where it goes into their lives and nourishes them and changes their direction and makes light bulbs go off in their head and makes them feel. And it isn't vague, it strikes against the very nerves of their life and in order to do that you have to strike against the very nerves of your own.

A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.

They're beautiful. But sad.' Everything's sad if you make it so, I said.

No matter how often you see or talk to someone, no matter how much you know them or don't know them, you always fill up some space in their lives that can't ever be replaced the right way again once you leave it.

I do think that what's wonderful in life is that we gain perspective as we take on different roles that are mind and heart opening.

The best thing about being 45 is not taking myself so seriously. Do I miss the package I came in at 25? I do. Gravity is no one's friend. Yet the perspective I've gained is so worth the wear and tear. What would have mortified me at 25 is now simply fodder for a funny, relatable story. Also? I was a waitress at 25, and now I'm an author. Forty-five is definitely better.

Its not just a smile of momentary happiness. When it disappears from my face, it will stay with me.

Truth takes the stamp of the souls it enters. It is rigorous and rough in arid souls, but tempers and softens itself in loving natures.

I am so honoured to have been given this opportunity to become an Ambassador. It's a new and different venture for me and one that I know will widen my wider perspective on life. I'm in a position to use the recognition from my work to do something really positive for children

A great book should leave you with many experiences.

I leave my character behind me.

I've not been right for any man or myself since I met you.