I’ve always thought that one of the least successful encounters is meeting a writer one admires. For one thing, writers are generally much kinder, more empathetic, more generous people on the page than they are in person. – Hanya Yanagihara
I think that fiction writers can write about anyone. If you are writing a character, and the only thing they are to you is their otherness, then you haven’t written a character. – Hanya Yanagihara
When you write a novel, you never have to be in the service of the reader. My only concern with my books is that the world that’s created be as logical and whole as possible. – Hanya Yanagihara
There is something uniquely American about the motel: It speaks to the transient nature of America itself, one enabled and encouraged by our roads and highways. – Hanya Yanagihara
There comes a point when you’re writing a novel when you’re in it so deep that the life of the novel becomes more real to you than life itself. You have to write your way out of it; once you’re there, it’s too late to abandon. – Hanya Yanagihara
Friendship is one of our most treasured relationships, but it isn’t codified and celebrated; it’s never going to give you a party. – Hanya Yanagihara
I love how Vietnamese cuisine always tastes like flowers, and how they had the ingenious idea of pairing that floral flavor with seafood: such a combination shouldn’t work as well as it does. – Hanya Yanagihara
I think for a lot of people, friendship is a relationship that gets devalued once they move on to what people consider to be more important relationships: once you find a partner or when you have kids. – Hanya Yanagihara
I wrote my second novel, ‘A Little Life,’ in what I still think of as a fever dream: For 18 months, I was unable to properly concentrate on anything else. – Hanya Yanagihara
I think I passed up a lot of opportunities for love because I was too interested in identity politics. – Hanya Yanagihara
In a basic sense, ‘A Little Life’ is a homage to how my friends and I live our lives. I wanted to push past the definitions of how we typically define friendship. It’s a different version of adulthood, but it’s no less important and no less legitimate than anyone else’s. – Hanya Yanagihara
Be aware of who in your life is actually interested in hearing you discuss your writing, and who’s just asking to be polite. Listening to writers talk about their work is often excruciatingly dull. – Hanya Yanagihara
Those of us lucky enough to fall in love with Asia know that it’s an affair that’s as long as it is resonant. – Hanya Yanagihara
One of the fun things about unreliable narrators is they can be funny. You can admire things about them and laugh with them. – Hanya Yanagihara
The nice thing about publishing later in life is that you already know who you are. You don’t have to hang out with the ‘Paris Review’ crowd to try to make yourself feel like a legitimate writer. – Hanya Yanagihara
What makes a fulfilling relationship or fulfilling life is not simply found in another. It’s found in a group of others. – Hanya Yanagihara
