Kyung Quotes

There is balance in taste, too, and an unbalanced taste can't captivate the eater. In order to create harmony, you have to think about balance, and to get balance in the kitchen you have to follow seemingly insignificant but crucial rules. ~ Kyung-ran Jo

What does a woman do as she waits for her man? She may wash her hair, put on makeup, choose the kind of outfit any woman would be eager to try on, spray on perfume, and look at herself one last time in the mirror. If she does these things, it's when she and the man she's waiting for are in love. It's different when a woman waits for a man she still loves but who has broken up with her, because the pure joy of it is missing. Loving someone is like carving words into the back of your hand. Even if the others can't see the words, they, like glowing letters, stand out in the eyes of the person who's left you. Right now, that's enough for me. ~ Kyung-ran Jo

When he came home with the traditional gift of underwear bought with his first paycheck, she barely looked at it, and coldly shot at him, "What about what you were going to be? ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

I have so many dreams of my own, and I remember things from my childhood, from when I was a girl and a young woman, and I haven't forgotten a thing. So why did we think of Mom as a mom from the very beginning? She didn't have the opportunity to pursue her dreams, and all by herself, faced everything the era dealt her, poverty and sadness, and she couldn't do anything about her very bad lot in life other than suffer through it and get beyond it and live her life to the very best of her ability, giving her body and her heart to it completely. Why did I never give a thought to Mom's dreams? ~ Shin Kyung-sook

I walked behind my father on the way to her headstone, he looked like a house that was caving in. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Maybe if we hug a hundred strangers, he said, something will change. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Yes, I had turned a deaf ear to my girlhood with my silence. It was a time when I was unable to love myself, so I had to go from fifteen straight to twenty. Whether I started walking out of my past or walked into it from the present, my footprints always came to a stop in the same place. I would go from being fifteen to twenty, or go from being twenty to fifteen, If I set out from the past, I had to ignore sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and skip straight to twenty. If I set out from the present, I had to ignore nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, and skip straight to fifteen. Those years always remained vacant, like naked sunlight, like the well with its bottom completely covered. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Kyung-sook's mother had taken it as an example that even if you started with nothing, with enough studying, one could accomplish everything. ~ Marie Myung-Ok Lee

I used to think that sharing secrets always brought people closer. So I revealed secrets I did not want known in order to feel closer to someone. Oh, the loss I felt when I found out the secrets that I had held dear, that were so difficult to say out loud, that I had kept to myself, were being spread around the next day as if they were nothing! I think that was the moment I realized that pouring your heart out to someone might not bring you closer but in fact make you poorer instead. I even though maybe growing close to someone was better achieved by empathizing in silence. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

as heavy as the load we shoulder is the world that we tread upon. Earthbound beings unfortunately cannot break free of gravity. Life demands sacrifice and difficult decisions from us at every moment. Living does not mean passing through a void of nothingness but rather through a web of relationships among beings, each with their own weight and volume and texture. Insofar as everything is always changing, so our sense of hope shall never die out. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

It seems that whether we are aware of it or not, memory carries a dagger in its breast. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

You left this house whenever you wanted to, and came back at your whim, and you never once thought that your wife would be the one to leave. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

We may be the protagonists of tragedy, but we are also the heroes of our most beautiful and thrilling experiences. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

The future rushes in and all we can do is take our memories and move forward with them. Memory keeps only what it wants. Images from memories are sprinkled throughout our lives, but that does not mean we must believe that our own or other people's memories are of things that really happened. When someone stubbornly insists that they saw something with their own eyes, I take it as a statement mixed with wishful thinking. As what they want to believe. Yet as imperfect as memories are, whenever I am faced with one, I cannot help getting lost in thought. Especially when that memory reminds me of what it felt like to be always out of place and always a step behind. Why was it so hard for me to open my eyes every morning, why was I so afraid to form a relationship with anyone, and why was I nevertheless able to break down my walls and find him? ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

The first change is a realization that I am no longer alone. Even when I'm lying in the dark by myself, I now sense other beings hovering near me. It isn't just me living in this house, but unfinished love and my dejection and anger and dead Paulie, and their miraculous presence feels as real as my fingernails digging into my hand. The second change is that I'm not more obsessed with cooking, like the Roman gourmets and their cherished chefs, who wanted to put all things wonderful or special or new or majestic or strange or scary-looking on the table. The cooks back then knew only how to bake or boil, but I understand how a few drops of pomegranate juice can transform a dish. The third change is that with these first two revelations, my sense of taste has become ever more sensitive and sharp, my imagination richer. When I got my ears pierced and walked into the street in the middle of winter, I become one large ear. All sensation and pain were concentrated in my ears. It's that same feeling. Everything about me disappears and I'm only a pink tongue. This is the time to grow into a truly good chef. ~ Kyung-ran Jo

She said that cats were more attached to places than to people. And that was why cats are often found in abandoned houses. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

I expected to have some tags from reporters, but I'm clear there so far."
"I've had all inquiries from media rerouted to my office."
She narrowed her eyes "You can do that?"
"I can."
"Why don't you always do that? ~ J.D. Robb

Until last fall, you thought you knew your mom well-what your Mom like, what you had to do to appease her when she was angry, what she wanted to hear... But last fall, your belief that you knew her was shattered. You went for a visit without announcing it beforehand, and you discovered that you had become a guest...Maybe you'd become a guest even before then, when you moved to the city. After you left home, your mom never scolded you. Before, Mom would reprimand you harshly if you did something even remotely wrong. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Architects have to know everything there is to know about a space. You have to know its past and present. That way you can build its future. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

You should only ask someone if they love you if you love them, regardless of what the answer might be. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Why resurrect it all now. From the Past. History, the old wound. The past emotions all over again. To confess to relive the same folly. To name it now so as not to repeat history in oblivion. To extract each fragment by each fragment from the word from the image another word another image the reply that will not repeat history in oblivion. ~ Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Life is sometimes amazingly fragile, but some lives are frighteningly strong. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Try thinking of sleep as a kind of rebirth. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Now I know that anytime you see a "no trespassing" sign, it means you've got to go in and take a look. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

One thing i am sure of is that our brief conversation in the dark showed him who i really am. I am a dumb fuck. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

I guess saying goodbye makes us reach out for those we would ordinarily ignore. Maybe we care about them more, too, when it is time to part. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

How far back does one's memory of someone go? ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

The first thing she did after she found out she was sick was to send me to live with my older female cousin in the city. I was in middle school at the time. For my mother, sending me away was her way of loving me. She said I was too young to be tied down to a sick mother and that I had too much to live for. Everybody has to say goodbye eventually, she told me, so you may as well start practicing. I cannot say she was right. I think that if we all have to say goodbye eventually then the best we can do is try to stay together as long as we possibly can. But it's not that one of us was right and the other was wrong. We just saw things differently. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

You realize how selfish you were to wish that your wife survived you. It was your selfishness that made you deny that your wife had a serious illness. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

People say that when a baby is crying the paternal grandmother will say, "The baby is crying, you should feed her," and the maternal grandmother will say, "Why is that baby crying so much, making her mom so tired? ~ Shin Kyung-sook

If you only do what you like, who's going to do what you don't like? ~ Shin Kyung-sook

I'm trying to think about what I can do. But instead all that comes to mind are the things I can't do. How do we judge truth and goodness? Where are justice and righteousness hiding? A society that is violent or corrupt prohibits mutual communication. A society that fears communication is unable to solve any problem. It looks for someone to shift the responsibility to and turns even more violent. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

But, Aunt... I don't want to go to the grave site set aside for me a few years ago at the ancestral grave site. I don't want to go there. When I lived here and woke up from the fog in my head, I would walk by myself to the grave site set aside for me, so that I could feel comfortable if I lived there after death. It was sunny, and I liked the pine tree that stood bent but tall, but remaining a member of this family even in death would be too much and too hard. To try to change my mind, I would sing and pull weeds, sitting there until the sun set, but nothing made me feel comfortable there. I lived with this family for over fifty years; please let me go now. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Only after Mom went missing did you realize that her stories were piled inside you, in endless stacks. Mom's everyday life used to go on in a repeating loop, without a break. Her everyday words, which you didn't think deeply about and sometimes dismissed as useless when she was with you, awoke in your heart, creating tidal waves. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Viewing the world from a different angle made it all look strange and dynamic, as if seeing it for the first time. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Do you know what happens to all the things we did together in the past? When I asked my daughter this, although it was you I wanted to ask, my daughter said, "It's so strange to hear you say something like this, Mom," and asked, "Wouldn't they have seeped into the present, not disappeared?" What difficult words! Do you understand what that means? She says that all the things that have happened are actually in the present, that old things are all mixed in with current things, and current things mingle with future things, and future things are combined with old things; it's just that we can't feel it. But now I can't go on. Do ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

To you, Mom was always Mom. It never occurred to you that she had once taken her first step, or had once been three or twelve or twenty years old. Mom was Mom. She was born as Mom. Until you saw her running to your uncle like that, it hadn't dawned on you that she was a human being who harbored the exact same feeling you had for your own brothers, and this realization led to the awareness that she, too, had had a childhood. From then on, you sometimes thought of Mom as a child, as a girl, as a young woman, as a newlywed, as a mother who had just given birth to you. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

He looked so silly that I could not stop laughing, even as my tears kept flowing. Is the root of laughter also sorrow? As I laughed, I was filled with both joy and sorrow. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

You never wondered, Did Mom like being in the kitchen? ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

I though it was weird to see people sleeping. It scared me to see them with their eyes closed. Like they might never wake up again. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

i can't wait for the years to pass Jung Yoon, he said in hollow voice. Can't wait to be older, when i will understand, even if i can't forgive. Can't wait to become strong. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Even though nobody knew that you were in my life, you were the person who brought a raft at every rapid current and helped me cross that water safely. I was happy that you were there. I came to tell you I was able to travel through my life because I could come to you when I was anxious, not when I was happy. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

It's not a miracle when the skies crack apart, the land split open, and dead people come back to life. Everyday that we live is a miracle. ~ Noh Hee-kyung

Everyone has his or her own means of defining value. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

The boy's walk was as distinct as hers. He looked like someone who walked on air, rather than someone who lived with his feet on the ground. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Leave her be," he said. "She'll stop when she's ready. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

That your wife truly loved the world, and that you loved her. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Eating is an absolute, repetitive activity. The same as love. Once you start you can't stop. So if you can't eat when you're hungry, it's worse than being stricken with the gravest illness. ~ Kyung-ran Jo

The thought of life without her makes me feel like I'm trapped inside a cave. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Each time i thought about him, the idea that i would never be able to reach him spread through my mind like a shadow. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

If there were no sea between you and me...there wouldn't be this painful goodbye ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

If your wife had asked you to read her the novel, would you have read it to her? Before she went missing, you spent your days without thinking about her. When you did think about her, it was to ask her to do something, or to blame her or ignore. Habit can be a frightening thing. You spoke politely with others, but your words turned sullen toward your wife. Sometimes you even cursed at her. You acted as if it had been decreed that you couldn't speak politely to your wife. That's what you did. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Myungsuh scratched his head and smiled. It was a bashful smile, but it spread from ear to ear. You couldn't help but smile, too, when you saw it. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

My brothers were still catching sparrows when my cousin told me to give him the baby bird. I didn't want to, but I took the squirming bird out of my pocket anyway. I wanted another look at it. It was so small. I don't think it could fly yet. My cousin plucked the bird from my palm and went off with it. I should never have taken it out of my pocket. When he returned, the birds were all burnt to a crisp. Their bones were popping out of their skin. I couldn't even tell which of the birds was mine. I looked at their burnt feathers and blackened skin and burst into tears. I cried for him to give me back my bird, but it was too late. My yelling must have irritate him, because he grabbed the smallest one and shoved it in my face, and said, 'Here it is.' When I took that charred baby bird from him, I felt the world crash down on me. It was the first time I had ever held something that had died. I love you as much as the sorrow I felt. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

When I lived here and woke up from the fog in my head, I would walk by myself to the grave site set aside for me, so that I could feel comfortable if I lived there after death. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

When someone stubbornly insists that they saw something with their own eyes, i take it as a statement mixed with wishful thinking. As what they want to believe. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Without even having to think about it, I said, "I hope you all have someone who always makes you want to say, Let's remember this day forever." The students oohed and aahed, and then laughed at each other's reactions. I laughed with them. "Also..." They'd thought I was done but they quieted down again. "I hope you will never hesitate to say, I'll be right there. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

How can you live without trusting people? There are more people who are good than people who are bad! ~ Shin Kyung-sook

We each get one life that is our own. We each in our own way struggle to get ahead, love, grieve, and lose our loved ones to death. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

If you don't want to cook, you should try throwing a dish. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Nature reminds me that I am human. Nature reminds me that I am a weak being, standing with my feet, upon thus perilous Earth. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

He said that the plane was too fast, that his body had arrived fast. That he was just ill because his soul could not keep pace with the speed of the plane and was still on its way home, and he would feel better once his soul had caught up. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

She says that all the things that have happened are actually in the present, that old things are all mixed up in current things, and current things mingle with future things, and future things are combined with old things; it's just that we can't feel it. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

But last fall, your belief that you knew her was shattered. You went for a visit without announcing it beforehand, and you discovered that you had become a guest. Mom was continually embarrassed about the messy yard or the dirty blankets. At one point, she grabbed a towel from the floor and hung it, and when food dropped on the table, she picked it up quickly. She took a look at what she had in the fridge, and even though you tried to stop her, she went to the market. If you are with family, you needn't feel embarrassed about leaving the table uncleared after a meal and going to do something else. You realized you'd become a stranger as you watched Mom try to conceal her messy everyday life. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

I had no way of knowing where it began or where it ended. Only that it flowed without restraint. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

Growing old does not make us any better at loving one another or understanding the meaning of life or death. Nor does knowledge come with the passage of time. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

your and your wife's fingers and toes after your deaths. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Life demands sacrifice and difficult decisions from us at every moment. Living does not mean passing through a void of nothingness but rather through a web of relationships among beings, each with their own weight and volume and texture. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

It's not important whether someone is a gourmet. Everyone wants to eat and knows that food is crucial to live. But everyone has his own special reaction toward food. One person can become so excited about a certain dish that his eyes sparkle and his muscles harden, while someone else shovels in the same dish without paying any thought to what he's eating. A gourmet appreciates beauty. Gourmets eat slowly and thoughtfully experience taste - they don't rush through a meal and leave the table as soon as they're done. People who are not gourmets don't see cooking as an art. Gourmandism is an interested in everything that can be eaten, and this deep affection for food birthed the art of cooking. Other animals have limited tastes, some eating only plants and others subsisting solely on but, but humans are omnivores. They can eat everything. Love for delicious food is the first emotion gourmets feel. Sometimes that love can't be thwarted, not by anything. ~ Kyung-ran Jo

Full of questions and pleas, her eyes seemed to be asking for rescue. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

Taking his hand and letting it go was my way of saying goodbye. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

If words are to be uttered, they would be from behind the partition. Unaccountable is distance, time to transport from this present minute.

If words are to be sounded, impress through the partition in ever slight measure to the other side the other signature the other hearing the other speech the other grasp. ~ Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

The trust that had been building inside each of us spread throughout the classroom. Had one of the windows broken at that moment, not even the sound of breaking glass could have disturbed the gentle stillness. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

He laughed and said, I don't believe it either but i want to believe it! ~ Kyung-Sook Shin

The food I eat in my imagination is more powerful and particular than what I consume in reality, just as a dream feels very real seconds after you awake from it, just as a person thinking about killing someone first tries it out in his dreams. You go over it again and again in the imaginary world because you're deprived of whatever it is you want, because there's something in you that misses it - an unfinished piece of art. Human beings sprint toward pleasure. Unfortunately, they feel pain, a joining of sensations, more easily than pleasure. ~ Kyung-ran Jo

I wanted to write not because I thought writing would bring about change. I simply loved it. Writing, in itself, allowed me to dream about things that in reality were impossible to achieve, things that were forbidden. From where had that dream seeped in? I consider myself as a member of society. If I can dream through my writing, doesn't that mean the society can dream, too? Oppa. When I think about writing, I think I am reminded of the penetrating eyes of a dog gazing at his master. The beauty of the face in those eyes, the sadness that comes from submitting to love, the silence that comes from having seen what it should not have. ~ Shin Kyung-sook

A house is such a strange thing. Everything else gets more worn when people handle it, and sometimes you can feel a person's poison if you get too close to him, but that's not what happens to a house. Even a good house falls apart quickly when nobody stops by. A house is alive only when there are people living in it, brushing against it, staying in it. ~ Kyung-Sook Shin