We're always observing, and we're cautious people. We really want attention, but at the same time, we're ashamed of wanting attention. All those bizarre qualities of being outside are necessary for being a writer.
Min Jin LeeRead
One thing that struck me in my study of history is how people are excluded. I don't mean just racial minorities or women. Pretty much all poor people who don't have documents are excluded from history and its records. People who were illiterate usually didn't leave any primary documents.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how marginalized groups often remain unrecorded in historical narratives.
Min Jin Lee's quote emphasizes the absence of certain groups, such as the poor, illiterate, and women, from historical documentation. It points out that history often reflects the perspectives of those in power, leaving behind the voices and experiences of the marginalized who lack representation in records and literature.
Themes
HistoryExclusionMarginalizationDocumentationVoices
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice, one might reference this quote to highlight the importance of including all voices in historical narratives.
More from Min Jin Lee
All quotes →Twenty-five million people who live in North Korea are denied freedom in every respect of their lives. In short, they are hostages. Imagine 25 million hostages.
Min Jin LeeRead
My father was born on Christmas Day in 1934. He grew up in what is now part of North Korea. When the Korean War began, my father was 16, and he found passage on an American refugee ship,thinking he'd be gone for just a few days, but he never saw his mother or his sister again.
Min Jin LeeRead
I think it's not an accident that you don't have that many Asian American women writers who are breaking out. I don't think it's an accident that you don't have that many Asian American writers, either women or men. I don't think that immigrants are encouraged to become artists. That's very gendered and racialized and ethnicized.
Min Jin LeeRead
Koreans are worried about the Japanese right-wing people, who tend to be against foreigners. But the Koreans in Japan aren't even foreigners. They are essentially culturally Japanese. If a family has lived in Japan for three generations, it's absurd to see them as foreigners.
Min Jin LeeRead
I've often felt like an outsider, not necessarily because I'm Korean, an immigrant, or female. I think writers are odd people.
Min Jin LeeRead
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