Hanseo

“It is axiomatic that one death is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic. So it was for Mi-ran. What she didn't realize is that her indifference was an acquired survival skill. In order to get through the 1990s alive, one had to suppress any impulse to share food. To avoid going insane, one had to learn to stop caring.”
― Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

“It’s better to live an ordinary life. If you go on striving for this and that, you’ll end up paying with your life.”
― Yu Hua, To Live

“Most people go through life thinking that tomorrow they’re going to do something great. Tomorrow will be the day that they wake up and discover what they were put on this earth to do. But then tomorrow comes—and goes. As does the next day. Before long, they realize that there aren’t that many tomorrows left.”
― Nick Bilton, American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

“But now she couldn’t deny what was staring her plainly in the face: dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea.”
― Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea