Ken Liu Quotes & Sayings

The more perfect the ideals, the less ideal the methods. — Ken Liu

Kuni was the sort of man, Risana realized, who, rather than deceive himself, was so full of self-doubt that he could no longer see himself. — Ken Liu

Emperor Erishi had let his bladder go. The guards dropped their swords. — Ken Liu

Sometimes it was hard to tell where the performance ended and the real self began - but what was this "real" self other than a set of performances? — Ken Liu

Safety is an illusion, as is faith without temptation. We're imperfect, unlike the gods, but in that imperfection we may yet make them jealous. — Ken Liu

Mono no aware, my son, is an empathy with the universe. — Ken Liu

The heart is a complicated thing, and we're capable of many loves, though we're told that we must value one to the exclusion of others...You can be loyal to your husband at the same time that you take a lover for your own sake, though the poets tell us this is wrong. But why should we believe that the poets understand us better than we do ourselves? — Ken Liu

When I became a bandit, I spent a lot of time being close to the lowliest of the low: criminals, the enslaved, deserters, men who had nothing to lose. Contrary to what I had expected, I found that they had a hardscrabble beauty and grace. They were not mean in their nature, but made mean by the meanness of their rulers. The poor were willing to endure much, but the emperor had taken everything from them.

These men have simple dreams: a plot of land, a few possessions, a warm house, conversations with friends, and a happy wife and healthy children. They remember the smallest acts of kindness and think me a good man because of a few exaggerated stories. They've raised me on their shoulders and called me duke, and I have a duty to help them get a little closer to their dreams. — Ken Liu

A man who can kill several people with a sword is merely a living weapon. A great warrior can kill thousands of men with just his mind. — Ken Liu

We suffer because we are the grass upon which giants tread. — Ken Liu

Read a lot of books and try a lot of recipes," Jia said. "When you learn enough about the world, even a blade of grass can be a weapon. — Ken Liu

The best followers are those who think it was their own idea to follow you. — Ken Liu

What is so bad about being compared to women?" Kuni said. "Half the world is made of women. — Ken Liu

Who can plan so far ahead? I just promise myself to do the most interesting thing every time there's an opportunity. — Ken Liu

Could the stories that parents tell children to lull them to sleep actually be true? — Ken Liu

Clearing away the superficial structure of the reigns of emperors and the dates of battles, there was the deeper rhythm of history's ebb and flow not as the deeds of great men, but as the lives lived by ordinary men and women wading through the currents of the natural world around them: its geology, its seasons, its climate and ecology, the abundance and scarcity of the raw material for life. — Ken Liu

My goal is to act as a faithful interpreter, preserving as much of the original's nuances of meaning as possible without embellishment or omission. Yet a translator must also balance fidelity to the source, aptness of expression, and beauty of style. The best translations into English do not, in fact, read as if they were originally written in English. The English words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture's patterns of thinking, hears an echo of another language's rhythms and cadences, and feels a tremor of another people's gestures and movements. — Ken Liu

A great warrior trusts not his weapons, but himself. When you possess true strength, you can deal a killing blow even if all you have is a blade of grass. "Now — Ken Liu

There is a time for flight, and a time for descent; a time for movement, and a time for rest; a time to do, and a time to prepare." "This — Ken Liu

she likes the sound of languages other than English. — Ken Liu

We are not defined by our individual loneliness, but by the web of relationships in which we're enmeshed. — Ken Liu

Pockets of sentience glow in the cold, deep void of the universe like bubbles in a vast, dark sea. — Ken Liu

Seeing that no more Xana champions took to the air, Kuni and Mata's men jeered at Namen's camp from atop the walls: "Who's the girlie now?" "Tanno Namen is an old lady more skilled with the embroidery needle than the sword!" "Namen, what's for dinner?" "Maybe the girls from Xana should go back to Pan before it's too late." Some — Ken Liu

We have children because we can't remember our own first taste of ambrosia." I can't — Ken Liu

fiction is about prizing the logic of metaphors - which is the logic of narratives in general - over reality, which is irreducibly random and senseless. — Ken Liu

Sometimes, the anger built up so much that people had to scream out their treasonous thoughts just to keep on breathing. Maybe not all of the were really crazy, but it was best for everyone involved to pretend that they were. — Ken Liu

So let us no more think of being compared to women as an insult." It — Ken Liu

I would like a window seat," I said, imagining the stars streaming by. — Ken Liu

The forest hugged Aomori — Ken Liu

The universe is full of echoes and shadows, the afterimages and last words of dead civilizations that have lost the struggle against entropy. Fading ripples in the cosmic background radiation, it is doubtful if most, or any, of these messages will ever be deciphered. Likewise, most of our thoughts and memories are destined to fade, to disappear, to be consumed by the very act of choosing and living. That is not a cause for sorrow, sweetheart. It is the fate of every species to disappear into the void that is the heat death of the universe. But long before then, the thoughts of any intelligent species worthy of the name will become as grand as the universe itself. — Ken Liu

Everyone marched as fast or slow as he liked. — Ken Liu

I do have the consolation that my enjoyment brings no death and suffering; when I die no one will jump up and down in joy; and I remember all the names and faces that matter to me." Mata — Ken Liu

The agony of the dead is with us, and we hear their screams and walk among their ghosts. We cannot avert our eyes or plug up our ears. We must bear witness and speak for those who cannot speak. We have only one chance to get it right. — Ken Liu

Though we were not born on the same day of the same month of the same year, we ask that Fate give us the satisfaction of dying on the same second of the same minute of the same hour. — Ken Liu

If someone had informed him that men were dying every day in the Islands for lack of a cup of rice, he would have been surprised. "Why do they insist on eating rice? Meat is so much better! — Ken Liu

Overly literal translations, far from being faithful, actually distort meaning by obscuring sense. — Ken Liu

He would measure the world against the rigid grid of his heart and put each man in charge of a domain no more and no less than his just deserts. — Ken Liu

Honored Big Sister," said Risana, "my heart is glad to finally be in your presence." "I should thank you, Little Sister," Jia said, "for taking care of our husband all this time. His letters never mentioned how beautiful you are." The two women smiled at each other. — Ken Liu

Like all true stories, it was a mix of legends and facts, of myths imagined and deeds done, of the heart of darkness and the crown of light, of experiences borne and gaps filled, of things seen and visions that could only be authenticated by the mind's eye. — Ken Liu

Science fiction is the literature of dreams, and texts concerning dreams always say something about the dreamer, the dream interpreter, and the audience. — Ken Liu

History is the long shadow cast by the past upon the future. Shadows, by nature, lack details. — Ken Liu

There are many ways to say I love you in this cold, dark, silent universe, as many as the twinkling stars. — Ken Liu

A lord who knows how to wield men is ten times more fearsome than one who knows only how to wield a sword. — Ken Liu

But being the mirrors for each other's souls has a cost: by the time they part from each other, the individuals in the mating pair have become indistinguishable. Before their merger, they each yearned for the other; as they part, they part from the self. The very quality that attracted them to each other is also, inevitably, destroyed in their union. — Ken Liu

Every moment, as we walk on this earth, we are watched and judged by the eyes of the universe. — Ken Liu

I didn't know this at the time, but Mom's kind was special. She breathed into them so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life. This was her magic. — Ken Liu

All life is an experiment.'" "A — Ken Liu

I have seen the poor suffer when nobles seek the purity of ideals. I have seen the powerless die when princes believe in the nostalgia of their dreams. I have seen the common people torn from peace and thrown into war when kings yearn to test the clarity of their vision. — Ken Liu

We spend our entire lives trying to tell stories about ourselves - they're the essence of memory. It is how we make living in this unfeeling, accidental universe tolerable. — Ken Liu

There's never going to be an end to suffering if 'he deserves it' is all the justification people need for inflicting pain. — Ken Liu

As the moon rose, I saw the light illuminate an ancient quote from the Ano Classics, carved into one of the broken lintels: 'All life is an experiment. — Ken Liu

At the end of all rationality, there is simply the need to decide and the faith to live through, to endure. Ruth — Ken Liu

The character for 'mob' is formed from the character for 'nobility' on one side and the character for 'sheep' on the other. So that's what a mob is, a herd of sheep that turns into a pack of wolves because they believe themselves to be serving a noble cause. — Ken Liu

As a jailer, I never got to understand my charges. But when I became a bandit, I spent a lot of time being close to the lowliest of the low: criminals, the enslaved, deserters, men who had nothing to lose. Contrary to what I had expected, I found that they had a hardscrabble beauty and grace. They were not mean in their nature, but made mean by the meanness of their rulers. The poor were willing to endure much, but the emperor had taken everything from them. — Ken Liu

He had truly meant to pay her a compliment when he told her how different she was from "those silly young noblewomen," had truly believed that she would be flattered to be thought extraordinary from her sex. It was men like him who had made her into a symbol, had put her into this impossible position. But, in a way, that made the task easy. She knew exactly what she needed to say and do, and she even enjoyed the challenge of playing the role of his ideal: She was worthy only insofar as she oriented herself to men, like a sunflower adoring the sun. — Ken Liu

There are no monsters. The monster is us. — Ken Liu

Getting a title is easy. It's keeping it that's hard. — Ken Liu

Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves obscure our truths. — Ken Liu

A momentary smile appeared on Cogo's face before fading away. No matter how many times he saw it, he was still amazed by how Kuni's sincerity shaded into an instinct for political theater. He was, of course, moved by the loyalty of a man who would rather be in jail than betray him, but he also knew to play it for all it was worth to cement even more loyalty. — Ken Liu

Platitude or not, the crowd erupted into applause, and by acclamation, Kuni Garu became the Duke of Zudi. A few pointed out that titles of nobility really couldn't be handed out in such a democratic fashion, but these killjoys were ignored. — Ken Liu

The body is intelligent, I think. It knows how to say what it means to be alive better than the mind ever will. — Ken Liu

Kuni didn't change his tone at all. If anything, he grew even calmer. "These cartoons are very amateurish. I could show Namen many more tricks about how to insult people artfully. For example, the drawings could have been made much more subtle and also much more lewd." "What? — Ken Liu

She may be from the sky, yet she is not so strange after all. — Ken Liu

Now that's the sort of thing I wish the nobles said more often," Dafiro whispered to Ratho. "While they resolve all their disputes this way, the rest of us can go back to planting our harvests and enjoying our lives. Let the kings and dukes get in an arena and fight all their wars with their own two hands. We'll watch and cheer them on. — Ken Liu

All life is an experiment. — Ken Liu

She imagined Kuni and Risana together, and despite herself, she was consumed with fury. — Ken Liu

A knife is not malicious merely because it is sharp, and a plot is not evil merely because it is effective. All depends on the wielder. The grace of kings is not the same as the morals governing individuals. — Ken Liu

The animals will stop moving when I stop breathing. But if I write to you with all my heart, I'll leave a little of myself behind on this paper, in these words. Then, if you think of me on Qingming, when the spirits of the departed are allowed to visit their families, you'll make the parts of myself I leave behind come alive too. The creatures I made for you will again leap and run and pounce, and maybe you'll get to see these words then. — Ken Liu

Do you see how much power you have when you act without fear? — Ken Liu

This investment may well pay off a hundredfold someday." "You — Ken Liu

He wanted to say that he yearned to accomplish something extraordinary, to be admired like a man riding at the head of a great procession. — Ken Liu

Miss Lilly." Mr. Kan stood up and solemnly shook her hand. "When there is such a large gap of years between two friends, we Chinese call it wang nien chih chiao, a friendship that forgets the years. It's destiny that brings us together. I hope you will always think of me and Teddy as your friends. — Ken Liu

There are no heroes, Tian Haoli. Grand Secretary Shi was both courageous and cowardly, capable and foolish. Wang Xiuchu was both an opportunistic survivor and a man of greatness of spirit. I'm mostly selfish and vain, but sometimes even I surprise myself. We're all just ordinary men - well, I'm an ordinary demon - faced with extraordinary choices. In those moments, sometimes heroic ideals demand that we become their avatars. — Ken Liu

But Mata understood that Jizu had been made into something like a saint, a symbol around which people could rally. Such symbols were the most dangerous because they could be made to say whatever those who held the symbol wished. — Ken Liu

Time's arrow is the loss of fidelity in compression. A sketch, not a photograph. A memory is a re-creation, precious because it is both more and less than the original. — Ken Liu

I'm not asking you to do anything of the sort - I know you can't marry someone as a cold, political act. But you'll be far from me, and I know well how loneliness eats away at affections and passions. You must marry someone you love, someone who'll be your companion and trusted adviser. You need such a voice by your side, especially in moments of doubt." Kuni — Ken Liu

Aren't you afraid?" I asked. "I almost died before I could begin to remember. — Ken Liu

Emperor, king, general, duke," he whispered to himself. "These are just labels. Climb up the family tree of any of them high enough and you'll find a commoner who dared to take a chance. — Ken Liu

He intrigued her. Powerful men, in her experience, were usually not so full of doubt. Kuni was consumed by the desire to do good for others, but uncertain what "good" might be and whether he was the right man for the job.
Kuni was the sort of man, Risana realized, who, rather than deceive himself, was so full of self-doubt that he could not longer see himself — Ken Liu

What is fate but coincidences in retrospect? — Ken Liu

It is as if the Caru'ee were able to perceive an echo of the past, and unconsciously, as they built upon a palimpsest of books written long ago and long forgotten, chanced to stumble upon an essence of meaning that could not be lost, no matter how much time had passed. — Ken Liu

The way I look at it is this: If you try to obey the law, and the judges call you a criminal anyway, then you might as well live up to the name. — Ken Liu

A little self-doubt is a good thing," said Jia, "but not excessive doubt. Sometimes we live up to the stories others tell about us. — Ken Liu

Let them say what they want," Kuni said. He admired the pamphlets and laughed. "I look pretty good as a girl, though I think they are suggesting I lose a few pounds. I have to send some of these to Jia; she could probably use the laugh as I imagine the baby - may the Twins protect the child - is making her life very stressful." "What is wrong with you?" Mata Zyndu roared and tore the pamphlet in his hands into pieces. He smashed the table in front of him; then, for good measure, smashed the table in front of Kuni as well. He stomped and ground the broken pieces of wood into even smaller pieces against the stone floor. But his rage was not assuaged. Not even a little bit. He paced back and forth in front of Kuni, kicking the wooden splinters every which way. Servants scattered to distant corners of the room, away from the barrage. "What is so bad about being compared to women?" Kuni said. "Half the world is made of women." Mata — Ken Liu

Those men and women of Yangzhou died a hundred years ago, Tian Haoli, and nothing can be done to change that. But the past lives on in the form of memories, and those in power are always going to want to erase and silence the past, to bury the ghosts. Now that you know about the past, you're no longer an innocent bystander. If you do not act you are complicit with the Emperor and his Blood Drops in this new act of violence, this deed of erasure. Like Wang Xiuchu, you're now a witness. Like him, you must choose what to do. You must decide if, on the day you die, you will regret your choice. — Ken Liu

There is no definitive census of all the intelligent species in the universe. Not only are there perennial arguments about what qualifies as intelligence, but each moment and everywhere, civilizations rise and fall, much as the stars are born and die. Time devours all. Yet every species has its unique way of passing on its wisdom through the ages, its way of making thoughts visible, tangible, frozen for a moment like a bulwark against the irresistible tide of time. Everyone makes books. — Ken Liu

This was a game popular among nobles and commoners alike. A category would be chosen - animals, plants, books, furniture - and everyone took turns comparing himself to an object from the chosen category. If the others judged the comparison apt, they would drink. If not, the player who made the comparison would drink. — Ken Liu

It's easy for men to be friends as close as brothers when they're poor and struggling, but much harder when things are going well. Friends are never as close as blood. Remember that, Rat. — Ken Liu

Mazoti said nothing. It always seemed that no matter how hard a woman worked, a man could eclipse her with no effort. "Gin, — Ken Liu

The fact that we can never have complete, perfect knowledge does not absolve us of the moral duty to judge and to take a stand against evil. — Ken Liu

It was a cruben, the great one-horned scaled whale of Dara and sovereign of the seas: two hundred feet long and as large next to an elephant as an elephant would be next to a mouse. Its eyes were so dark that they sucked in all sunlight like deep wells, and when the great fish exhaled through its blowhole, the fountain shot as high as a hundred feet. — Ken Liu

Even a brilliant mind sometimes needs a dull stone to sharpen itself. — Ken Liu

I thought my duty was to restore Haan, but Haan is not King Cosugi or the burned-down palace or the ruins of the great estates or the dead nobles and their descendants pining for glory-these are but parts of an experiment at a way of life for the people of Haan, her true essence. When the experiment has proven to be a failure, one must be willing to try new paths, new ways of doing things. — Ken Liu

But it's not really Chinese, is it?'
Logan was thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know. I guess you'd say it's really not if you look back thousands of years. But I don't think that way. Lots of things start out not Chinese and end up that way. — Ken Liu

My darling, my child, my connoisseur of sesquipedalian words and convoluted ideas and meandering sentences and baroque images, while the sun is asleep and the moon somnambulant, while the stars bathe us in their glow from eons ago and light-years away, while you are comfortably nestled in your blankets and I am hunched over in my chair by your bed, while we are warm and safe and still for the moment in this bubble of incandescent light cast by the pearl held up by the mermaid lamp, you and I, on this planet spinning and hurtling through the frigid darkness of space at dozens of miles per second, let's read. — Ken Liu

If you insist on fighting every fight that comes your way, you're simply letting them push you around in a different way. — Ken Liu

When I was younger," Kikomi said, "I would get into debates with my brothers and their friends. They could seldom win, for their minds were dull, and they did not apply themselves to their work. But often, when it was clear that I had the better argument, they would laugh and say 'It's impossible to argue with such a pretty girl,' and thereby deny me my victory. Life has not changed much since then. — Ken Liu

Sometimes those who lit the spark that began a conflagration must be consumed by it lest the fire burn on indefinitely. — Ken Liu

Great men and women are not constrained in the forms their loves may take," said Soto. "You and Jia may love others, but in each other's estimation, you'll always be first among equals."

"But it will never be smooth sailing and all sunshine, will it?"

"What would be the fun in that? — Ken Liu

There was a tendency by some to romanticize love, to make a fetish out of it. The poets made love seem like a bar of iron coming out of the furnace at the blacksmith's, red hot and staying so forever. Soto did not think much of such notions. — Ken Liu