Monika Kim > Quotes

“By the time you’re done with him, he’ll be begging for mercy. Who is he if he can’t control you? Is he even a man anymore? It will seem like a relief when you give him a hand, even if that hand is holding a blade. And when you take everything from him, you can say what these men say about us: He was asking for it. He was begging for it. He must have wanted it, since he didn’t fight back.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I’ve always been jealous of the kids who have never had to deal with this crushing pressure. They have no idea how good they have it, how lucky they are. Often, I find myself wondering: What is it like to live freely, to live a life untethered, without having to be responsible for everyone around you?”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“As later experiences would confirm, to deal with a man like that, a man like George, you have to pull the rug out from under him. Not all at once, of course; a small tug here, another one there. You don’t back down when he tries to wield his power. Instead, you trip him up by slipping him little lies. Correct him whenever you can. Confuse him. Make him feel foolish. Men like him hate being wrong, hate being embarrassed, hate not being in control. Men like him don’t know what to do when that happens, and they resort to childish displays of anger, temper tantrums, sulking. In spite of this, he won’t be able to do a single thing about it because in the end he’s the one who is weak. The only power he has is the power you are willing to give him, and you’ve given him nothing. Not a scrap.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Yeah, sorry, I ate a homeless guy’s eyeball last night, and I’m really struggling with it, so. . . .”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“How do I explain to her that the home I miss isn’t a place? It’s a time when my life made sense. When things made sense.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I know that plant is pretty, but poison is everywhere, even in the places where you least expect it.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“We girls are taught from an early age that we are demonstrably inferior to our male counterparts. We are smaller, weaker, stupider. When we succeed, it’s only because men allow us to. And as Asian women, we are foreign and especially powerless, with our supposedly porcelain skin, delicate physiques, “slanted pussies,” and quiet, submissive natures.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“In the end, everyone leaves.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“There was a delicate, tenuous thread tying us together. If I moved, would it break?”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“George’s power doesn’t come only from the fact that he has a penis. It comes from his whiteness. For us, that kind of certainty and self-assuredness is an impossibility.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Her tears dripped onto my hands, onto the carpet; I watched them fall and had the sudden realization that our roles had reversed. Somehow, I had become the mother and she the daughter.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I’m certain that blue eyes would taste amazing, much better than brown ones.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“The only power he has is the power you are willing to give him, and you’ve given him nothing. Not a scrap. By the time you’re done with him, he’ll be begging for mercy. Who is he if he can’t control you? Is he even a man anymore?”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“And when you take everything from him, you can say what these men say about us: He was asking for it. He was begging for it. He must have wanted it, since he didn’t fight back.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“She’s sleeping on her side, huddled over in the corner, even though the rest of the bed is empty. Perhaps it’s because she’s used to making herself small. Perhaps it’s because she’s spent a lifetime making herself inconspicuous for men like my father and George.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“You don’t back down when he tries to wield his power. Instead, you trip him up by slipping him little lies. Correct him whenever you can. Confuse him. Make him feel foolish. Men like him hate being wrong, hate being embarrassed, hate not being in control. Men like him don’t know what to do when that happens, and they resort to childish displays of anger, temper tantrums, sulking. In spite of this, he won’t be able to do a single thing about it because in the end he’s the one who is weak. The only power he has is the power you are willing to give him, and you’ve given him nothing. Not a scrap.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I press my tongue against the white of his sclera. It’s salty. His tears. His sweat. I can taste it all.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“It must be nice to be so assured of your safety that you don’t have to worry about being alone at night or getting in the wrong car.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“What is it like to live freely, to live a life untethered, without having to be responsible for everyone around you?”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“The other night, she insisted that the moon landing had been faked. When Ji-hyun and I started arguing with her, she seemed almost happy, even when it resulted in an almost hour-long quarrel that left Ji-hyun in tears.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“skin. Her tears dripped onto my hands, onto the carpet; I watched them fall and had the sudden realization that our roles had reversed. Somehow, I had become the mother and she the daughter.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Fate can bring you together, but it can just as easily tear you apart.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Hope is my sister curled in my arms, her head resting against my shoulder, asking, “Do you think he will come back?”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Men like George aren’t like us. Not like me, not like Ji-hyun. Not even my father, another man, can compare because George’s power doesn’t come only from the fact that he has a penis.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“Then I slowly, methodically dig his eyes out from his head with the knife. I put each eyeball in my mouth and swallow it whole, optic nerves sliding down my throat like spaghetti noodles—”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I’m seething. I want to make him bleed. I want to cut his head open, peel back his skin, eat his eyes.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“More than anything, he hated that everything in his life served as a reminder of his failures. I don’t blame him. Maybe because I know what it’s like, to live a life so defined by want. That’s why I was able to recognize it in him—it was what I had been feeling for so long.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I don’t resent her for her grief. It comes from a place of weakness, of powerlessness.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“I know that the plant is pretty, but poison is everywhere, even in the places where you least expect it.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part

“do a single thing about it because in the end he’s the one who is weak. The only power he has is the power you are willing to give him, and you’ve given him nothing. Not a scrap. By the time you’re done with him, he’ll be begging for mercy. Who is he if he can’t control you? Is he even a man anymore? It will seem like a relief when you give him a hand, even if that hand is holding a blade. And when you take everything from him, you can say what these men say about us: He was asking for it. He was begging for it. He must have wanted it, since he didn’t fight back.”
― Monika Kim, The Eyes Are the Best Part