20 Quotes by Crystal Hana Kim

I realized we were lurching toward a new world—one where women would disappear with foreigners, where Americans would never leave us alone, where they didn't simply provide us with money but with their ways of living as well.

As a Korean American, I grew up yearning to see actors that looked like me. On the rare occasions I saw an Asian celebrity, I adored them unflaggingly.

My grandmother raised me when I was little. I was born here, and my parents are immigrants; they needed someone to help take care of me because they were working a lot, so my grandmother came from Korea. So I'm very close with my grandmother, and I keep in touch with her a lot.

My grandmother lived under Japanese colonial rule until she was nine. Korea, still united and whole, was colonized in 1910. During this period of forced occupation, Japanese teachers taught Korean students how to view the world through their imperialist language, their history, their foreign tongue.

Memory warps and stretches and shifts to fit the strictures of your life.

Regret is something I wanted to write a lot about because once you make a decision, regret doesn't do anything except linger inside you.

Words have power, and especially in the realm of beauty, how we speak about ourselves is important.

When I was in the second grade, I learned that I looked different from my classmates.

Summer in Seoul is full of thick heat that clings to your neck, the back of your knees.