I have never blogged, and until just this moment could not imagine what I would ever blog about. But, then, lo and behold: right on my own profile page, I saw a quote from my own first book, Typical American. This read:

“He was not what he made up his mind to be. A man was the sum of his limits: freedom only made him see how much so. America was no America.”
― Gish Jen

And, yes, those are my words; no, I have not been misquoted. And yet those are words my protagonist, Ralph Chang, utters at the nadir of his fortunes -- words which are undercut by the image that follows right after them, an image of possibility and light.

So is that quote a quote? Hmm.

Typical American