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Andrew Lam Biography

Andrew Lam (born 1964) is a Vietnamese American writer. He was born in South Vietnam, where he led a privileged life as the son of General Lâm Quang Thi of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He attended Lycée Yersin in Đà Lạt.

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Andrew Lam Quotes

Today, more people are crossing various borders in order to survive, thrive, change their lives. Even if you don't cross the border, with demographic shifts, the border sometimes crosses you.

Change, Crossing, Order, People, Survive, Today

Art is the lesser sister to medicine. It aims to heal.

Aim, Aims, Art, Medicine, Sister

Missing from the national conversation are voices of pro-immigration reformers and civil rights leaders, who can speak on behalf of those who have no voice.

Rights, Voice, Leader, Behalf, Leaders, National

When I came to the United States in 1975 I was eleven, and within a few months my voice broke. I recited commercials like a parrot and I got yelled at quite often. My older brother one night said, "You speak so much English when you're not supposed to, that's why your vocal chords shattered. Now you sound like a duck. " I thought it was true. I went from this sweet-voiced Vietnamese kid who spoke Vietnamese and French to this craggy-voiced teenager.

Sweet, Brother, Teenager, Vietnamese, Months, Yelled

I am glad to see the wheels are moving at last toward comprehensive immigration reform after last year's election. I am glad that immigrants are speaking up.

Election, Moving, Reform, Speaking Up, Wheels, Years

I have a funny story to tell about English and how I came to fall in love with the language. I was desperate to fit in and spoke English all the time. Trouble was, in my household it was a no-no to speak English because somehow it is disrespectful to call parents and grandparents "you" - impersonal pronouns are offensive in Vietnamese.

Falling In Love, Funny, Grandparent, Offensive, Speak English, Vietnamese

The collection is a labor of love and devotion, and whenever I found free time from my journalism work, I'd work on one story or another, or at least sketch out my characters, and research various issues related to my characters' dilemmas.

Character, Issues, Stories, Free, Related, Found

Isn't the first story told in the West about the Fall? Adam and Eve were immigrants too from somewhere, a lost Eden, a paradise lost. We all now are so mobile, so nomadic.

Eden, Fall, Mobile, Paradise, Stories, West

[The immigrant] becomes a kind of insurance policy against the effects of the recession. By blaming him, the pressure valve is regulated in times of crisis. . . What we have now is a public mindset of us versus them, and an overall anti-immigrant climate that is both troubling and morally reprehensible.

Climate, Times Of Crisis, Pressure, Insurance, Blaming

All three of my books, "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora," "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres," and "Birds of Paradise Lost," are immigrant narratives - their dreams, their traumas, their struggles - and I write them with the confidence that these stories, written from the heart, will belong, in time, to America.

Dream, Struggle, Book, Traumas, Time, Narratives

I always say that writing non-fiction versus writing fiction is a bit like architecture versus abstract painting.

Abstract, Abstract Painting, Architecture, Fiction, Writing

I am hopeful that the pendulum swings toward seeing immigrants in favorable terms once more.

Swings, Hopeful, Pendulums, Toward

In the war on terrorism, the immigrant is often the scapegoat.

Immigrant, Scapegoat, Terrorism, War

I've been writing short stories for twenty years now, on and off ever since I was in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University.

San Francisco, Short, Twenty, Writing, Years

I think in a larger sense, immigrant narrative is comprehensive and speaks to the core of human experience.

Experience, Narrative, Speak, Speaks, Thinking

As a Vietnamese refugee who became an American writer, I can tell you that you matter, that your sadness matters, the story of how you survived and triumphed matters. For every story that belongs to you, in time, belongs to America.

America, American, Matters, Sadness, Stories, Vietnamese

Precious things lost are transmutable. They refuse oblivion. They simply wait to be rendered into testimonies, into stories and songs.

Refuse, Rendered, Song, Stories, Testimonies, Waiting

In non-fiction you have to stay true to historical events, be they personal or national.

Events, Fiction, Historical, National, Stay

It's unfortunate that the country of immigrants has turned its back on immigrants. The atmosphere after 9
11 is toxic.

Atmosphere, Country, Toxic, Turned, Unfortunate

Andrew Lam Biography

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