Hyeonseo Quotes & Sayings

He showed me that there was another world where strangers helped strangers for no other reason than that it is good to do so, and where callousness was unusual, not the norm. — Hyeonseo Lee

Five days and the train has passed through many underworlds. — Barbara Kingsolver

Designing a station with artificial gravity would undoubtedly be a daunting task. Space agencies would have to re-examine many reliable technologies under the light of the new forces these tools would have to endure. Space flight would have to take several steps back before moving forward again. — Andy Weir

Suicide in Korean culture is a highly emotive means of protest. The regime regards it as a form of defection. — Hyeonseo Lee

The stupid thief wears the sheep bell around his neck! Such stupidity of the bad is always good for the society! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

I don't want to leave you alone. I want you to get mad.[ ... ]You've got to say 'I'm a human being, god dammit! My life has value! — Paddy Chayefsky

Her job at the local government bureau also meant that she had access to farm produce managed by her office. — Hyeonseo Lee

Kindness toward strangers is rare in North Korea. There is risk in helping others. The irony was that by forcing us to be good citizens, the state made accusers and informers of us all. — Hyeonseo Lee

I don't really have a dream collaboration. — Taio Cruz

I find you can often find humor just by turning something upside-down. Like a ... small child. — Emo Philips

In North Korea the only laws that truly matter, and for which extreme penalties are imposed if they are broken, touch on loyalty to the Kim dynasty. — Hyeonseo Lee

Hugo," she said, in a certain hurt tone that I knew well and enjoyed provoking, "you can be most horribly rude when you choose. Why do you choose? — Patrick McGrath

The sessions taught me a survival lesson. I had to be discreet, be cautious about what I said and did, and be very wary of others. Already I was acquiring the mask that the adults wore from long practice. Often, — Hyeonseo Lee

It's not important to know who you are. It's important to know what you do, and then to do it like hercules! — Stella Adler

Kind people who put others before themselves would be the first to die. It was the ruthless and the selfish who would survive. — Hyeonseo Lee

Dictatorships may seem strong and unified, but they are always weaker than they appear. — Hyeonseo Lee

Leaving North Korea is not like leaving any other country. It is more like leaving another universe. I will never truly be free of its gravity, no matter how far I journey. — Hyeonseo Lee

One of the favorite games I play, when I improv or take on a character, is what I like to call arrogant ignorance. That's the game I enjoy playing most. — Rob Riggle

After years in the Chinese workforce, I had developed an emotional attachment to money. My earnings were my hard work and long hours; my savings were comforts deferred. — Hyeonseo Lee

It is mandatory from elementary school to attend public executions. Often classes would be cancelled so students could go. — Hyeonseo Lee

For it is, and must remain, the case that we must obey God rather than man. — Martin Niemoller

The school year started in September, with a long vacation in the winter, not the summer, due to the difficulty of keeping the schools warm in North Korea's harsh winters. My kindergarten had a large wood-burning stove in the middle of the classroom and walls painted with colourful scenes of children performing gymnastics, children in uniform, and of a North Korean soldier simultaneously impaling a Yankee, a Japanese and a South Korean soldier with his rifle bayonet. — Hyeonseo Lee

She liked to dress well because she thought this made up for plain and ordinary looks. In fact she was prettier than she knew. — Hyeonseo Lee

Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools. It accommodates by assuming the shape of any vessel it is poured into. And it is humble, seeking always the lowest level. Yet along with - or rather because of these adaptive, yielding properties, it is ultimately irresistible; it carves canyons out of stone. — Huston Smith

This is the first time I will tell my story in English, a language still new to me. The journey to this moment has been a long one. — Hyeonseo Lee

The South Koreans treated me well. I could not bear to imagine their reaction if they'd known I'd grown up in the bosom of their archenemy. At times this felt surreal. We were all Koreans, sharing the same language and culture, yet we were technically at war. I — Hyeonseo Lee

It was an aspiring neighbourhood that retained a faint edge of slum, typical of Shanghai. Pensioners in Mao-era padded jackets would sit on doorsteps playing mah-jong, oblivious to the Prada-clad girls sweeping past on their way to work. — Hyeonseo Lee

My closest friend at this time was my tiny pet dog - it was one of the cute little breeds that people in other countries put frocks on. I wouldn't have been allowed to do that, because putting clothes on dogs was a well-known example of capitalist degeneracy. — Hyeonseo Lee

But the story didn't end there. Almost 800 years later, the spirits of Shams & Rumi are still alive today,whirling amid us somewhere ... — Elif Shafak