“When I’m working on a novel, the rhythm of the sentences is essential to me. It’s not about music for music’s sake, but rather a way of tapping into the movement of a particular mind, a particular way of being.”
“The Best That You Can Do is my love letter to Generation X— to those of us who grew up with latchkeys and had to make do till our parents and guardians came home…”
“I’ve written a book about teeth. My teeth. Their decline and fall and costly rebirth.”
“For years now, I’ve said that when I finally settle down and find somewhere I want to live, the first thing I’m going to do is buy a nice hi-fi system, procure Walter Wegmüller’s 1973 double Krautrock LP Tarot, and just spend an afternoon in a comfortable chair in front of the speakers.”
“Because Spring on the Peninsula follows Seoul’s millennials and Generation X, much of its envisioned soundtrack has to do with K-pop before it became a globally recognized term…”
“At heart, the novel is not only about the hardship of becoming a refugee, and the imbalance of power between the privileged and the destitute, it is about love.”
“The playlist below makes me think not only of the book and the terrain it covers, but also my journey of writing it.”
“Half-Lives centers around women’s psyches and bodies and explores the way living in a woman’s body today is like walking through a dizzying funhouse of obstacles, distortions, and surprises.”
“How could an eco-memoir by a queer scuba diver not include the signature song from The Little Mermaid?”
“How do you write a grief memoir about the person who has both loved and hurt you the most?”