Pachinko

by Min Jin Lee

“People are rotten everywhere you go. They’re no good. You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.”

Patriotism is just an idea, so is capitalism or communism. But ideas can make men forget their own interests. And the guys in charge will exploit men who believe in ideas too much.

a wise person must rein in his tongue. Not everything you wanted to say should be said.

The Sorrows of Young Werther

She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.

to live without forgiveness was a kind of death with breathing and movement.

sins of the careless tongue; it was always better to speak less,

“If you do well at anything, you gotta pay up to all the people who did worse. On the other hand, if you do badly, life makes you pay a shit tax, too. Everybody pays something.”

The tax for being mediocre comes from you and everyone else knowing that you are mediocre. It’s a heavier tax than you’d think.”

There’s nothing fucking worse than knowing that you’re just like everybody else. What a messed-up, lousy existence.

There was consolation: The people you loved, they were always there with you, she had learned.