Quotes by Ken Liu - Page 2 | QuoteForever

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As a species, we tend to live in environments where our own artifacts dominate. The way we shape our environment and are in turn shaped by it is a key theme in my fiction - indeed, it's a key part of a great deal of science fiction.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Science
Environment
Science Fiction
Species
Theme
Deal
Dominate
Great Deal
Indeed
Shaped
Shape
Tend
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Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes its inspiration from the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from East Asian antiquity.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Aesthetic
Antiquity
Asian
Draws
Science Fiction
Victorian
Science Technology Science Fiction
Blend
East Asian
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I get to use fiction as a way to work out my thinking and to delight readers in the process. I can't think of any deal that's better for me, and I'm always so grateful that readers have indulged me as I argue with myself in my stories.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Delight
Grateful
Work Out
Work Myself Thinking
Readers
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I certainly have been writing stories that are hard science fiction, that are very reminiscent of 'Golden Age tales' from the '40s and '50s. I've also written stories that are very high fantasy that are the direct opposite of that style.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Golden
Golden Age
Tales
Reminiscent
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Because my writing time has always been very limited, I try to be very choosy about which stories I work on. There are many ideas that would make interesting stories - too many - so it's important to be ruthless and say no to most of them.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Choosy
Interesting Stories
Ruthless
Time Work Always
Work Time Important
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The 'Grace of Kings' isn't a narrative about a return to some golden age, to a lost status quo ante. It portrays a dynamic world in transition, where the redistribution of power is messy, morally ambivalent, and only lurches toward more justice.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Ambivalent
Golden
Golden Age
Grace
Lost
Messy
Narrative
Return
Status Quo
Transition
Dynamic
Morally
Quo
Redistribution
Status
Toward
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As an American writer, the literary tradition that I draw on the most is the Anglo-American one, and when you are writing in this tradition, the Orientalizing Western gaze is something you have to constantly push against as well as compromise with.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Compromise
Tradition
Western
Writer
Constantly
Draw
Literary
Gaze
Push
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I think writing novels has taught me more about the value of patience and being organized. I've learned to use timelines and wikis to track decisions and make sure everything still fits together. It's both easier and harder than writing short fiction.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Easier
Harder
Organized
Taught
Track
Decisions
Short
Fits
Novels
Value
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I think male authors who want to try to tackle these issues of representation of women can generally do a better job if they try to question traditional notions of masculinity and the sort of toxic nature of traditional ways of presenting masculinity.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Masculinity
Presenting
Representation
Toxic
Male
Authors
Better Job
Generally
Notions
Tackle
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My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Interpretation
Metaphor
Performance Art
Author
Medium
Translation
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I've been writing long enough to know that fiction, as a rhetorical mode, works very differently from expository writing. If an author has a specific critique about contemporary society in mind, fiction tends not to be the best means to deliver that critique.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Contemporary
Contemporary Society
Critique
Rhetorical
Author
Works
Deliver
Mode
Specific
Tends
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Because I really love tax, tax topics actually feature quite a lot in my fiction of various lengths. I once wrote a science fiction short story centered around the idea of an alien tax code, and the idea that you can understand a society by parsing its tax code.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Code
Science Fiction
Short Story
Topics
Tax
Alien
Centered
Short
Feature
Quite A Lot
Tax Code
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For 'The Grace of Kings,' I read Han Dynasty historical records in Classical Chinese, which allowed me to get a sense of the complexity of the politics and the 'surprisingly modern' reactions of the historical figures to recurrent problems of state administration.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Administration
Chinese
Complexity
Dynasty
Figures
Grace
Historical
Reactions
Records
Allowed
Classical
Surprisingly
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I was a tax attorney for something like seven years, so I was a tax geek. I was really into it. Tax is one of those things that people think is incredibly boring, but like any science about systems, once you get into it it, becomes incredibly intricate and interesting.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Attorney
Intricate
Systems
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The Singaporean speculative tradition is different. Singapore doesn't conceive itself as the centre of the world or the one country that's going to save the world, so there's a different tone that comes out in the way speculative fiction is done. That's refreshing to read.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Centre
Fiction
Refreshing
Save The World
Singapore
Tone
Tradition
Conceive
World Country Way
One Country
Save
Speculative
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There's inherent cultural imbalance whenever you're translating from Chinese to English. Educated Chinese readers are expected not only to know about all the Chinese references - history, language, culture, all this stuff - but to be well-versed in Western references as well.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Chinese
Educated
Expected
Imbalance
Inherent
Western
English
Cultural
Readers
References
Translating
Whenever
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My wife, Lisa, and I both grew up on wuxia - Chinese historical romances. They're kind of analogous to Western epics. They're based on history, just like 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey' are based on history, but they're romanticized, and a lot of fantasy elements have been added.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Chinese
Elements
Fantasy
Historical
Iliad
Odyssey
Western
Wife
Added
Based
Epics
Romances
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Researching real history has taught me to be bolder and more imaginative in building fantasy worlds and writing fantasy characters, to seek out the margins of history and the forgotten tales that illuminate the whole, complex truth of our flawed yet wondrous nature as a species.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Fantasy
Flawed
Forgotten
Imaginative
Margins
Species
Tales
Taught
Wondrous
Bolder
Characters
Complex
Illuminate
Seek
Researching
Worlds
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There are so many different narrative traditions across the world, and each of those traditions has evolved dramatically over time. Once I understood that, I felt truly free; I could write and invent the way I wanted to because there never has been only one way to tell a good story.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Good Story
Narrative
Time Good World
Dramatically
Invent
Only One Way
Traditions
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What is fascinating to me is the way I view everything in terms of parallels and connections. When I read about Achilles and Odysseus in Homer's 'Iliad,' I can see parallels in Chinese historical romances, in the way the first emperor of the Han dynasty and his chief rival are portrayed.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Achilles
Chinese
Connections
Dynasty
Emperor
Fascinating
Historical
Iliad
Parallels
Chief
Homer
Portrayed
Terms
Rival
Romances
View
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I'm conscious of the fact that I'm sort of a bridging figure. I have my Chinese literary heritage and cultural background, so I'm comfortable with these things, but at the same time, I have to navigate the Anglo-American tradition, which has a self-centred view of what Asia and what being Chinese means.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Asia
Conscious
Heritage
Navigate
Tradition
Cultural
Literary
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Real history is far more complex and interesting than the simplistic summaries presented in Wikipedia articles. Knowing this allows you to question received wisdom, to challenge 'facts' 'everybody' knows to be true, and to imagine worlds and characters worthy of our rich historical heritage and our complex selves.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Articles
Facts
Heritage
Historical
Wikipedia
Be True
Presented
Received
Selves
Simplistic
Worlds
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There's this long history of colonialism and the colonial gaze when applied to matters related to China. So a lot of conceptions about China in literary representations in the West are things you can't even fight against because they've been there so long that they've become part of the Western imagination of China.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
History
China
Related
West
Against
Applied
Colonial
Fight
Matters
Literary
Gaze
Long History
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What tends to happen when people talk about Chinese sci-fi in the West is that there's a lot of projection. We prefer to think of China as a dystopian world that is challenging American hegemony, so we would like to think that Chinese sci-fi is all either militaristic or dystopian. But that's just not the reality of it.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
China
Dystopian
Hegemony
Projection
Reality
Sci Fi
West
Reality World People
Prefer
World People Talk
Challenging
Either
Tends
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The 'Grace of Kings' begins as a very dark, complicated world filled with injustices - among them the oppressed position of women - but gradually transforms into something better through a series of revolutions. But since real social change takes a long time, even by the end of the book, only the seeds of deep change have been planted.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Book
Complicated
Dark
Filled
Grace
Long Time
Oppressed
Position
Seeds
Series
Social
Social Change
Time Change Women
Revolutions
Since
Among
Begins
Change Time Women
Gradually
Injustices
Planted
Takes
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People who are ambitious - politicians who crave power - think that they're in control of it, but at some point, the movement that they started overtakes them, and they lose the ability to direct things anymore, and they become essentially riders on a wild stallion, and wherever the movement goes, wherever power takes them, they have to go along.
Ken Liu / Fiction Writer
Ability
Ambitious
Crave
Direct
Movement
Riders
Anymore
Wild
Politicians
Essentially
Goes
Power Control People
Lose
Point
Takes
Wherever
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