Joseph Kim > Quotes

“You can even yearn for a prison, so long as it contains the people and places you love. One”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“What are Christians?” “The people in the churches.” “Yes, I know. But why do Christians give money to strangers?” He was getting a little peeved. “It’s just what Christians do. They give things away. They’re not like normal people.” I sighed. “That makes no sense.” The ex-convict tried to explain, but I could see even he didn’t understand what he was saying. In North Korea, there was no concept of doing things for other people out of kindness. Unconditional love was not something I was familiar with. You did things because of family obligation, or because of hunger or greed, or because there was no other choice. But what he was describing—people freely giving their hard-earned cash to complete strangers—was plain crazy. We changed the subject. But the ex-convict’s stories stayed in my mind. I thought of Christians as bizarre people, almost another species. I wanted to meet them, touch them, to confirm that such creatures existed.”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“If you ever wanted to invade North Korea, that would be the time to do it, because half the country would be at a neighbor’s house waiting for a show to begin. The”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“If your mind is strong,” he told me, “you can survive anything.”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“And in America you can go to a store twenty-four hours a day, any time you want. There is always something happening, even at night.”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“Even if life has made you a criminal, you can be true to yourself. In fact, you have to be true to yourself.”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America

“The ex-convict tried to explain, but I could see even he didn’t understand what he was saying. In North Korea, there was no concept of doing things for other people out of kindness. Unconditional love was not something I was familiar with. You did things because of family obligation, or because of hunger or greed, or because there was no other choice. But what he was describing—people freely giving their hard-earned cash to complete strangers—was plain crazy. We”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“Hunger is humiliation. But hunger is also evil.”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“And that’s how I became part of the Association for Redistributing Wealth in Hoeryong.”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith

“The broccoli fascinated me. Soft miniature trees. White broccoli cost more than green. Why? Grandma didn’t know. “What”
― Joseph Kim, Under the Same Sky: A Memoir of Survival, Hope, and Faith