5 Quotes & Sayings By Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee was born in South Korea in 1978. She immigrated to the United States in 1984. She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University, magna cum laude, and her MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her first novel, Free Food for Millionaires, was a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times Best Seller Read more

Her novel Pachinko received a number of awards, including the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and the German Booksellers Association's Literature Prize. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

1
His Presbyterian minster father had believed in a divine design, and Mozasu believed that life was like this game where the player could adjust the dials yet also expect the uncertainty of factors he couldn't control. He understood why his customers wanted to play something that looked fixed but which also left room for randomness and hope. Min Jin Lee
2
Yes, of course. If you love anyone, you cannot help but share his suffering. If we love our Lord, not just admire him or fear him or want things from him, we must recognize his feelings; he must be in anguish over our sins. We must understand this anguish. The Lord suffers with us. He suffers like us. It is a consolation to know this. To know that we are not in fact alone in our suffering. Min Jin Lee
3
Clothing was magic. Casey believed this. She would never admit this to her classmates in any of her women's studies courses, but she felt that an article of clothing could change a person.. Each skirt, blouse, necklace, or humble shoe said something - certain pieces screamed, and others whispered seductively, but no matter, she experienced each item's expression keenly, and she loved this world. every article suggested an image, a life, a kind of woman, and Casey felt drawn to them." (Free Food For Millionaires, p.41). Min Jin Lee
4
Casey glanced at her plate again, recalling the posters of her elementary school lunchroom: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. So, how much you ate indicated the quantity of your desire. Walter was also implying that how quickly you got your food revealed the likelihood of achieving your goals. She was in fact terribly hungry, but she'd pretended to be otherwise to be ladylike and had moved away from the table to be agreeable, and now she'd continue to be hungry" (Free Food For Millionaires, p.92.). Min Jin Lee