"As writers, of course we’re interested in human beings, human stories, human trauma, and all that is very compelling for readers. But when we write these powerful stories about individual people, we have the illusion that we’ve made a difference. And of course we have—people read the books, they’re touched emotionally by these kinds of stories, and that’s great. But to the extent that the stories that we’re telling are about people who are weaker, in some way—they come from a small country, or a forcibly removed population, they’re underrepresented collectively—individual stories don’t change the conditions that produce those refugees in the first place…"
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Pulitzer Prize winnersNovelists from the United StatesAcademics from the United StatesMacArthur FellowsVietnamese Americans
Original Language: English
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On writers overestimating the difference that their writings make in “An interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen” in Asymptote Magazine
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Viet_Thanh_Nguyen
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Viet Thanh Nguyen
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