Rachel Khong is an Asian-American writer and editor.

Quotes

• I wanted the book to inhabit quieter moments, and to be about these smaller interactions that reflect the way life often is. A tidy, definitive ending wouldn’t have been right for this book or the people in it; I wanted to leave the suggestion that life goes on, for all of these characters, even after the last page.
  • On what she aimed for in her novel Goodbye, Vitamin in “Hello, Rachel Khong: Talking with the Former Lucky Peach Editor about Her Debut Novel, GOODBYE, VITAMIN” in Booklist Reader (2017 Jul 11)

• People are so obsessed over this question of what is and isn’t autobiography—and I think the question is especially popular with people who don’t read much fiction, because a novel seems so mysterious: “Where did this story come from?…
  • On readers wondering if she included biographical elements in her writings in whether writers have the responsibility to write about contemporary issues in “Hello, Rachel Khong: Talking with the Former Lucky Peach Editor about Her Debut Novel, GOODBYE, VITAMIN” in Booklist Reader (2017 Jul 11)

• Nonfiction requires logic and more careful thinking; sometimes I have to remind myself to be less self-conscious when I’m writing fiction. You have to turn off the part of your brain that tells you things don’t make sense or aren’t any good. Whereas that voice can be useful in nonfiction writing.
  • On how writing nonfiction versus fiction compares in "Rachel Khong: How I Write" in The Writer Magazine (2018 May 25)

• Memory is everywhere, in the ways we think of ourselves and tell our stories. There are certain kinds of people who have more of a sense of who they are and their whole life story.
  • On the role of memory in how working as a lawyer that served domestic violence victims inspired her to become a writer in "The Spaces In-Between: The Millions Interviews Rachel Khong" in The Millions (2017 Aug 22)

External links