Jenny Han Quotes:
Food is a way to explore culture and ground the story in a specific time and place. I still remember the meals and snacks from my first novel, ‘Shug’: pork chops and applesauce and Coca-Cola and peanuts, which are very Southern. When a character has roots elsewhere, food is a way to connect with home and another culture.
Jenny Han
The most joyful part of writing, for me, is when I am 90% there, and suddenly the story clicks into place, and things finally start to make sense.
Jenny Han
When I sold my first middle-grade novel in 2005, it wasn’t that common to put an author photo on the back flap, but 24-year-old Korean-American me insisted. I wanted Asian girls to see my face. And more than that, I wanted them to see what is possible.
Jenny Han
There is power in seeing a face that looks like yours do something, be someone. There is power in moving from the sidelines to the center.
Jenny Han
I really love to write about food, crafts, and fashion, so those details will always be a part of my books. I think they inject stories with color and flavor, providing a tactile experience.
Jenny Han
Teenage years are all about crushes: crushes so deep you wanted to inhabit the other person, be inside their skin, see the world through their eyes.
Jenny Han
I started writing stories at a young age, but not once did it occur to me that I could grow up to be a writer. Who could I look to? My favorite authors were Ann M. Martin and E.L. Konigsburg and Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and Lois Lowry and Norma Klein. They were all white women, and they seemed so stately to me, so elegant. A whole world away.
Jenny Han
My sister is my very favorite person, and I dedicated ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ to her.
Jenny Han
I don’t plan anything out, and I don’t write in chronological order. The emotional tenor is what guides me, but a lot of it is feeling my way through the dark. That’s okay if you have unlimited time to work and stumble upon things in a delightful way, but under a deadline, it can be really stressful.
Jenny Han
I don’t think kids of color should have to search far and wide to find books that reflect their experience.
Jenny Han
When I finished ‘P.S. I Still Love You,’ I truly was done with the series. I kept saying the books were two halves of a heart. But I suppose time and space had made me nostalgic, because my mind kept drifting back to Lara Jean and Peter, wondering what they were up to.
Jenny Han
I try to be measured and thoughtful about what I put out there because I know a lot of young people follow me on Twitter, and I take that seriously – which is why I don’t exclusively tweet about cookies and ‘Game of Thrones’ and YA.
Jenny Han
I think most girls have that moment when boys they’ve known their whole life see them in a different way.
Jenny Han
I write diverse books because the world we live in is diverse, and I want my books to reflect that truth.
Jenny Han
It’s far too rare an experience for Asian American girls to see themselves in media.
Jenny Han