Lulu Wang

“But you just don't know where any film is going to go, or how it's going to end up. Films so often don't get the love and attention needed to get to the right festival, or find the right distributor, or get seen by the world.”

“I immigrated when I was six so I had to learn English and I was always an outsider from a young age, and so I think my drive was that I wanted to fit in.”

“My mother and my father are both very funny people, and they're both artistic in their own right. Oftentimes, we get very dramatic about things, but we also laugh really hard.”

“For a while I had a little company and made corporate videos, did some little documentaries, almost, for court cases and mediations.”

“Who does get to claim Americanness? You know, my brother was born in this country. And is he seen as American? So, I mean, it brings up a lot of interesting questions.”

“I never want to tell a story where I'm lecturing to the audience.”

“In America especially, if you're Chinese and you work at a restaurant, there's a certain connotation among the Chinese immigrant community: It's the first generation that opens restaurants as a way to survive. You open to support your family so your kids can become doctors and lawyers.”

“I'm comfortable, culturally I'm American, my perspectives are American, but from an aesthetic perspective do other people look at me and think that I'm American?”

“My goal is, no matter what genre or story, I'll find a personal angle. It doesn't have to be autobiographical, or specifically Asian-American. It has to explore a burning question that I have.”

“My brother is working to change the perception of Chinese food in America.”

“Writing is a type of therapy for me. I'm always trying to break down what happened, and why I felt a certain way.”

“Americans always talk about family love being unconditional, and I realized that I didn't feel that way.”

“So whatever decision you make, you're going to be able to find stories or signs to say 'I did the right thing,' because we have to believe we did the right thing in order to survive.”

“As the Chinese girl, you don't fit in with anybody. It wasn't a large Chinese-American population, so I didn't grow up having a community of Asian friends. Even when there were Asian people, we sort of existed on our own.”

“Because if Asian American content is seen as a trend, the way that like leggings are in, then that's not true representation or inclusion. The mainstream doesn't have to worry about that.”

“Sometimes America is so great because it brings all of us together, but sometimes it can be so limiting because it puts labels on things.”

“We all have different aspects of ourselves, and who we are to different people in our lives, at different stages of our lives.”

“I made 'The Farewell' for me, for my family, and for other immigrant children, or children of immigrants, who feel caught in-between two worlds.”

“Protagonists traditionally are active characters.”

“I didn't grow up making coffee. I'm not good at it.”