In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey To Freedom Quotes
"I wasn’t dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn’t even know what it meant to be free."
"The spark of human dignity is never completely extinguished, and that given the oxygen of freedom and the power of love, it can grow again."
"In school, even arithmetic is a propaganda tool."
"In North Korea, it's not enough for the government to control where you go, what you learn, where you work, and what you say. They need to control you through your emotions, making you a slave to the state by destroying your individuality."
"When you are always hungry, all you think about is food."
"North Koreans have two stories running in their heads at all times, like trains on parallel tracks. One is what you are taught to believe; the other is what you see with your own eyes."
"The frozen babies that starving mothers abandoned in the alleys did not fit into my worldview, so I couldn’t process what I saw."
"When you watch a movie, your imagination can carry you away for two whole hours. You come back refreshed, your struggles temporarily forgotten."
"This dictatorship, both emotional and physical, is reinforced in every aspect of your life."
"I wanted to jump into his arms and hug him, but I was living under my uncle’s roof, and I was afraid to show him how happy I was to see my father."
"We knew a man who had gone to work in Russia. It was basically slave labor, but at least he was fed so he didn’t starve."
"The boys gave me a signal in school, and in the evening they would come by and stand outside the building, shouting the code name so that I could hear it and make an excuse to come down."
"Ordinary schools in North Korea did not have such things. I was so embarrassed that I got upset with Chun Guen for no reason and left early."
"We were all so hungry we wanted to hear every detail."
"I was so happy when he brought a friend with a motorcycle."
"It was not our original plan. My sister and I were supposed to go ahead, without my mother. But now I knew I could not leave my mother behind."
"At this point she didn’t admit that she knew my sister, but she seemed more eager to win our trust."
"I didn’t know what would happen to us, but I knew I would rather die than live like this anymore—I knew in my heart that I deserved to be treated like a person, not a hunted animal."
"If you were captured and returned to North Korea, then your life would be over."
"I always believed that if I wished hard enough, bread would somehow fall from the sky."
"You need more than optimism and hard work to succeed. You also need luck."
"I would rather die than live without freedom."
"I had spent too much energy and time hating and being intolerant of the choices others had made."
"It’s not easy to give up a worldview that is built into your bones and imprinted on your brain."
"In North Korea, we don’t have words for 'depression' or 'post-traumatic stress'."
"I didn’t know there were public libraries until much later."
"Everything, even basic human emotions, has to be taught."
"You can’t really grow and learn unless you have a language to grow within."
"I read to fill my mind and to block out the bad memories."
"In a democracy, if you work hard, you will be rewarded."
"I never knew that happiness could come from knowledge."
"Being told that what I wanted to do was impossible had motivated me."
"I did what I had to do to survive and save my family."
"I realized I had no hope in this place. I felt dirty and lost."
"I vowed that my eyes wouldn’t close until I found my sister."
"All I wanted to do at the Heavenly Dream School was study. I was so thirsty to learn that I couldn’t tolerate any distractions."
"Sometimes Yeonmi calls me after a taping and asks me, ‘Am I really a North Korean? I sometimes cannot understand what the other sisters are saying.’"
"Being on the show changed me, because I learned a lot about the reality of North Korea."
"Each story awakened more of my own memories and slowly began to fill my heart with purpose."
"The Kims I had once worshipped as gods were now revealed to be criminals. And criminals deserve to be punished."
"I wasn’t really afraid of dying as much as I was afraid of being forgotten."
"I felt free for the first time ever. It was like a heavy sky had been pushing down on me, pinning me to the earth, and now it was lifted and I could breathe again."
"To be your child has been the greatest blessing and honor in my life."
"North Korea is an unimaginable country. The day I escaped North Korea, I saw my mother raped by a Chinese broker who had targeted me."
"I thought North Koreans were the only ones suffering in the world."
"By simply telling my story, I had something to offer, too."