Suki Kim Quotes & Sayings

It was as if nothing quite erased the initial shock of being kissed by someone who was not hers, a kiss that was stolen, claimed from her flippantly, a kiss so abrasively illicit that she seemed to deserve it, as though she was not worth much to begin with. — Suki Kim

The nationalism that had been instilled in them for so many generations had produced a citizenry whose ego was so fragile that they refused to acknowledge the rest of the world. — Suki Kim

This was always the case with North Korea. It was like the bad boyfriend whose presence could never be depended on, so you always had to seize the opportunity to spend time with him when he made himself available. — Suki Kim

You can only drive yourself crazy if you have no distance from the world — Suki Kim

TIME THERE SEEMED TO PASS DIFFERENTLY. WHEN YOU ARE shut off from the world, every day is exactly the same as the one before. This sameness has a way of wearing down your soul until you become nothing but a breathing, toiling, consuming thing that awakes to the sun and sleeps at the dawning of the dark. The emptiness runs deep, deeper with each slowing day, and you become increasingly invisible and inconsequential. That's how I felt at times, a tiny insect circling itself, only to continue, and continue. There, in that relentless vacuum, nothing moved. No news came in or out. No phone calls to or from anyone. — Suki Kim

They would swear that the United States was their number one enemy, and yet carrying a pack of Marlboro Lights seemed to be a sign of privilege and class. — Suki Kim

The stars are in your favor, darling, you can't be horrible. Nope, they won't let you. — Suki Kim

(As for unmarried women, I have no idea where they are buried. For a very long time, in Korea, no one talked about them.) — Suki Kim

North Korea was the evangelical Christian Holy Grail, the hardest place to crack in the whole world, and converting its people would guarantee the missionaries a spot in heaven. — Suki Kim

How quickly we became prisoners, how quickly we gave up our freedom, how quickly we tolerated the loss of that freedom, like a child being abused, in silence. — Suki Kim

these lovely, lying children, I saw very clearly that there was no redemption here. — Suki Kim

Sometimes the longer you are inside a prison, the harder it is to fathom what is possible beyond its walls. — Suki Kim