Susan Choi Quotations

I stopped writing short fiction early on - I was never really good at it, and I never liked the results. So I stopped trying to fit the material I was working with into these tidy little short fiction packages.

Innocence as we understand it in our culture is very theatrical. The flip side is, if youre charming enough, you can get away with anything.

Ive at times in my past been so unhappy, and thought, like, I would give anything for this not to be happening. And, you know, as people say, time passes, and then you think, Im kind of glad that happened to me.

The most shocking act, closely examined, is just a louder version of some habitual gesture.

Graduate school is a really supportive environment, but in a way, it was only when that support vanished that I flourished.

The complexity of the world is so overwhelming and so present to everyone.

I was the daughter of an immigrant, raised to feel that I needed to get excellent, flawless grades and a full scholarship and a graduate degree and a good job - all the stepping stones to conventional success.

I always try to avoid looking at the section where my books would be shelved, but I do know that my most reliable neighbor to the right is Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening', which is dispiriting. That's a book I don't want to re-read.

I've at times in my past been so unhappy, and thought, like, 'I would give anything for this not to be happening.' And, you know, as people say, time passes, and then you think, 'I'm kind of glad that happened to me.'

I think 'Gatsby' is hobbled, in part, by its status as a Great American Novel. People kind of roll their eyes before they've even opened it, treat it with a 'been there, done that' attitude. I know I did. It took me years to re-open the novel and see how much I'd missed.