Ha Jin

“I work hard, I work very hard. All the books at least 30 revisions.”

“At home you could depend on your parents, but in America you are on your own and should make as many friends as you can . . . You don't know who may hold out a helpful hand in your hour of need.”

“Once you've done it with him, he won't abandon you. If he really loves you, if he's a man with a heart, he'll follow you wherever you go. If he doesn't, he isn't the man you want, is he?”

“But most good writers are Don Quixote at heart, and unreasonableness is often a condition of art.”