If a news camera shows up, people will line up, they want to be seen. But at the same time they want both to be chosen and not singled out. I think that is an endless struggle within most.
Celeste NgIf you told people you were moving to Ohio, they wouldn't congratulate you. They'd say "OH WHY would you move there?" as if that was something that happened to you and you had to deal with.
Celeste NgI think this is something that is naturally built in in people, a need for attention and a need to be special and we are always trying to find a balance.
Celeste NgWhen you mention to people growing up in Cleveland they bring up the river catching on fire, or LeBron James leaving, they have these references, but no one imagines ending up there.
Celeste NgI am very active on Twitter and one thing that keeps popping up is "How do I balance having a kid and writing?" And I know it should not be as aggravating, but I know no one ever asks a male writer that. Or, any male that.
Celeste NgThey never discussed it, but both came to understand it as a promise: he would always make sure there was a place for her. She would always be able to say, Someone is coming. I am not alone.
Celeste NgThe writer's job, after all, is not to dictate meaning, but to give the reader enough pieces to create his or her own satisfying meaning. The story is truly finished—and meaning is made—not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters the story and fills that little ambiguous space, completing the circuit, letting the power flow through.
Celeste NgI'd like to think of my self as not melancholic at all, I think I'm a pretty cheerful person, really.
Celeste NgYou don't feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.
Celeste NgI would never tell myself, you have to write 20 pages today or something. But I do try to show up. Read what I wrote, fix things.
Celeste Ng