When I'm describing wartime activities or violence I don't want to be too ornate, to prettify the picture. Once we trace them to the present, the prose becomes denser.
Chang-Rae LeeAs for what's the most challenging aspect of teaching, it's convincing younger writers of the importance of reading widely and passionately.
Chang-Rae LeeI think their pasts are treated with a voice that sees their role as those of innocents. That's reflected in the past time sequences. They're less "written."
Chang-Rae LeeImagination might not be limitless. It's still tethered to the universe of what we know.
Chang-Rae LeeI assumed just from being around, all these years, that people would immediately glom on to, Well, it's a departure, and it's a dystopian kind of thing, and that's natural, of course. But it's surprised me - not even surprised me, but it's pleased me - how much people have been responding to the way the book was written.
Chang-Rae Lee