Young Ha Quotes

#1. Art is about going a little nuts and justifying the next sentence.

Young-Ha Kim

#2. I like to take certain aspects of genre fiction and modify them in my own way. 'Your Republic Is Calling You' follows the form of a spy novel, but it leads readers into a world of Kafkaesque irrationality.

Kim Young-ha

#3. Sometimes fiction is more easily understood than true events. Reality is often pathetic.

Young-Ha Kim

#4. A kid who has just started to lie is taking the first step as a storyteller.

Young-Ha Kim

#5. Life is a continuous cycle of once-terrifying things becoming normal.

Young-Ha Kim

#6. The artistic desire reveals itself in dark form - in karaoke bars [or] trolling on the Internet.

Young-Ha Kim

#7. People say mountains change in about ten years. If something as stubborn and mammoth as a mountain can change in a decade, the hearts of ordinary North Koreans can change. I'm sure of it. I'm living proof." --Ha Young, a North Korean defector

Jieun Baek

#8. Oh, don't sit there blushin, he says, git on with it. Life's too short. Take her off in the bushes, my friend, an make her yer own. If you don't, somebody else will. Hell, I might jest make a play fer her myself. That 'ud put a rocket in yer pocket. Ha ha! How's about it, Red? You an me?

Moira Young

#9. Novels are food for the leftover hours of life, the in-between times, the moments of waiting.

Young-Ha Kim

#10. People unconsciously want to reveal their inner urges.

Young-Ha Kim

#11. Don't be a fish; be a frog. Swim in the water and jump when you hit ground.

Kim Young-ha

#12. In the early 2000s, people expected that anonymity on the Internet would be positive for the development of democracy in South Korea. In a Confucian culture like South Korea's, hierarchy can block the free exchange of opinions in face-to-face situations. The web offered a way around that.

Kim Young-ha

#13. People who don't know how to summarize have no dignity. Neither do people who needlessly drag on their messy lives. They who don't know the beauty of simplification, of pruning away the unnecessary, die without ever comprehending the true meaning of life.

Young-Ha Kim

#14. From the early 1960s to the mid-1980s - the era of military dictatorship when South Korea was rebuilding itself from a postwar economic basket case to a humming, modern nation - military schools were the track of choice for ambitious young men.

Kim Young-ha

#15. We don't know why we should be artists, but we have many reasons why we can't be.

Kim Young-ha

#16. South Korea first allowed women into the military in 1950 during the Korean War. Back then, female soldiers mainly held administrative and support positions. Women began to take on combat roles in the 1990s when the three military academies, exclusive to men, began accepting women.

Kim Young-ha

#17. Just like any other company, Samsung can fail, and if that happens, how will the South Korean economy overcome the shock? If we don't decrease our over-reliance on the chaebols and prepare to let smaller, dynamic start-ups fill the gaps in their place, it won't.

Kim Young-ha

#18. Well, ha-jolly-ha to YOU, young Stiffie
with knobs on!

P.G. Wodehouse

#19. It's an open secret: Even now, in the 21st century, Korean executives often consult spiritual advisers before making major business decisions - decisions that can affect their employees around the world.

Kim Young-ha

#20. We are all born artists. If you have kids, you know what I mean. Almost everything kids do is art. They draw with crayons on the wall.

Kim Young-ha

#21. To-day I bake, to-morrow brew, The next I'll have the young Queen's child. Ha! glad am I that no one knew That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.

Jacob Grimm

#22. When the head of the Hyundai Motor Company, Chung Mong-koo, was fighting with his younger brother Chung Mong-hun over the company's management, he is said to have consulted a fortune-teller.

Kim Young-ha

#23. An artist's passion shouldn't create passion. An artist's supreme virtue is to be detached and cold.

Young-Ha Kim

#24. I always take a close look at those who lose themselves in self portraits. They are solitary souls, prone to introspection, who have really grappled with their existence.

Young-Ha Kim

#25. A military career offers the stability many South Korean women crave.

Kim Young-ha

#26. And still everything's the same, even though I did my best to get as far away as I could.

Young-Ha Kim

#27. The present is re-created to immortalize memories. It's pathetic, but that's human tendency now.

Young-Ha Kim

#28. The constant movement of a military life can be tough on children. My father was an officer in the army, and I was forced to change elementary schools six times.

Kim Young-ha

#29. When the moon covers the sun, we have a solar eclipse. What do you call it when birds do that?

Kim Young-ha

#30. There are only two ways to be a god: through creation or murder.

Young-Ha Kim

#31. In my 20s, I became obsessed with the role-playing game 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms,' named after a classical Chinese novel, and later 'The Sims,' a life-simulation game, and 'StarCraft,' a science-fiction game.

Kim Young-ha

#32. Here's a question we all ask ourselves at least once when we're young: Where does that starlight come from? It's been there before I was born, and before my grandmother, and her grandmother were born. So just how far is that star from Earth?

Kim Young-ha

#33. The moment kids start to lie is the moment storytelling begins. They are talking about things they didn't see. It's amazing. It's a wonderful moment. Parents should celebrate. 'Hurray! My boy finally started to lie!' All right! It calls for celebration.

Kim Young-ha

#34. Why does nothing change, even when you set out for a faraway place?

Young-Ha Kim

#35. A novel, basically, is writing one sentence - then, without violating the scope of the first one, writing the next sentence.

Young-Ha Kim