146 Quotes by Alexander Chee


  • Author Alexander Chee
  • Quote

    Yes, everything's been written, but also, the thing you want to write, before you wrote it, was impossible to write. Otherwise it would already exist. Your writing makes it possible.

  • Tags
  • Share



  • Author Alexander Chee
  • Quote

    PhD, MFA, self-taught—the only things you must have to become a writer are the stamina to continue and a wily, cagey heart in the face of extremity, failure, and success.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Alexander Chee
  • Quote

    I tilt my head back and carefully toss my hair over my right shoulder in the way I have seen my younger sister do. I realize I know one more thing about her than I did before - what it feels like to do this and why you would. It’s like your own little thunderclap.

  • Share


  • Author Alexander Chee
  • Quote

    A collection like a circus of daredevils, but with the determined charm of a Chinese drag queen making her home in Iowa. Siasoco takes us on a trip through the world we know by way of characters I've not seen in fiction before, or at least, not enough of--characters with stories I have been waiting for. A bravura debut.

  • Share

  • Author Alexander Chee
  • Quote

    My mother’s most common childhood memory of me is standing next to me trying to be heard over the voice on the page. I didn’t really commit to writing until I understood that it meant making that happen for someone else.

  • Share