"Orphans are the only ones who get to choose their fathers, and they love them twice as much."
"I thought that, with so much current attention focused on the topic of North Korea, I might share what I think are three books which cast a rare light on the elusive realm of North Korea."
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Source: Adam Johnson (2012). “The Orphan Master's Son”, p.15, Random House
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"Had she never been hungry enough to eat a flower? Did she not know that you could eat daisies, daylilies, pansies, and marigolds? That hungry enough, a person could consume the bright faces of violas, even the stems of dandelions and the bitter hips of roses?"
"The next day, she was silent. For breakfast, she murdered an onion and served it raw."
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"Where we are from... [s]tories are factual. If a farmer is declared a music virtuoso by the state, everyone had better start calling him maestro. And secretly, he'd be wise to start practicing the piano. For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it is the man who must change."