Pema Yangdon

“Somebody goes ahead and dies and all of a sudden you become a box for them, he thought, you store these things that no one has ever seen and you go on living like that, your head a coffin to keep memories of the dead alive. But what do you do with that kind of box? Where do you put it down?”
― Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

“The hardest thing in the world is to live only once. But it’s beautiful here, even the ghosts agree.”
― Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

“How can I know what Marta knows? Some things belong to those who lived them.”
― Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness

“Hai considered this. Indeed, at what granular material moment did bread become cake? Or was it always cake, falsely named to amplify bread beyond its potential?”
― Ocean Vuong, The Emperor of Gladness