87 Quotes by Adam Johnson

To think what the Stasi went through to spy on us. Even they couldn't dream of a world in which citizens voluntarily carried tracking devices, conducted self-surveillance and reported on themselves, morning, noon and night.

When the dogs returned, the Senator gave them treats from his pocket, and Jun Do understood that in communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes

In this way, you’ll live forever.

sometimes the boys from Propaganda will nose around for a feel-good story to play to the citizens over the loudspeakers, but we’re story takers, not storytellers.

Our rival interrogation team is the Pubyok, named after the "floating wall" defenders that saved Pyongyang from invaders in 1136. There are only a dozen or so left, old men with silver crewcuts who walk in a row like a wall and truly believe they can float, stealthy as ghosts, from one citizen to the next, interrogating them as the wind interrogates the leaves.

To survive in this world, you got to be many times a coward but at least once a hero

Acts of heroism are easy—becoming a hero is a bitch.

... that "take" was a word people used for those who had so little to give as to be immeasurable.

The darkness inside your head is something your imagination fills with stories that have nothing to do with the real darkness around you