Quotes From "The Orphan Masters Son" By Adam Johnson

Ga thought about reminding the Dear Leader that they lived in a land where people had been trained to accept any reality presented to them. Adam Johnson

Today, tomorrow, " she said. "A day is nothing. A day is just a match you strike after the ten thousand matches before it have gone out. Adam Johnson

Use your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past. Adam Johnson

A name isn't a person, ' Ga said. 'Don't ever remember someone by their name. To keep someone alive, you put them inside you, you put their face on your heart. Then, no matter where you are, they're always with you because they're a part of you. Adam Johnson

Ga thought of how difficult it was to come to see the lies you told yourself, the ones that allowed you to function and move forward. Adam Johnson

This was the face that Ga had shown the world, that of a boy who had swallowed the things that had happened to him, but who wouldn’t understand what they meant for a long, long time. Adam Johnson

[I]n communism, you'd threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes. Adam Johnson

The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you Adam Johnson

When the dogs returned, the Senator gave them treats from his pocket, and Jun Do understood that in communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes Adam Johnson

I wonder of what you must daily endure in America, having no government to protect you, no one to tell you what to do. Is it true you're given no ration card, that you must find food for yourself? Is it true that you labor for no higher purpose than paper money? What is California, this place you come from? I have never seen a picture. What plays over the American loudspeakers, when is your curfew, what is taught at your child-rearing collectives? Where does a woman go with her children on Sunday afternoons, and if a woman loses her husband, how does she know the government will assign her a good replacement? With whom would she curry favor to ensure her children got the best Youth Troop leader? . Adam Johnson

Jun Do had dealt with this his whole life, the ways it was impossible for people from normal families to conceive of a man in so much hurt that he couldn’t acknowledge his own son, that there was nothing worse than a mother leaving her children, though it happened all the time, that “take” was a word people used for those who had so little to give as to be immeasurable. Adam Johnson

To survive in this world, you got to be many times a coward but at least once a hero Adam Johnson

Acts of heroism are easy–becoming a hero is a bitch. Adam Johnson

In this way, you’ll live forever. Adam Johnson