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Lillian Li

Writer

Lillian Li is a Chinese American author. Her novel Number One Chinese Restaurant was an NPR Best Book of 2018 and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

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Question How much rewriting or revision do you do? Craft & work read 33 other answers →

I love editing probably more than I love writing. Writing does feel in many ways like I’m making mud or making clay, material that I then, in the editing process, can shape and make into whatever I want it to be. But, until I make that mud or whatever, there’s nothing else I can make. After finishing a rough draft, I go back and start rewriting oftentimes within the draft, which is kind of a bad habit because it means that I’ll take more shortcuts. With the first novel, I started to do something that I think I’ll do forever because I love it so much, which is reading out loud. I probably read my novel out loud like six to 10 times.

Recorded Ambrose Mary Gallagher, The Creative Independent interview, 10 August 2026 source ↗

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