YouSaid · the spoken record

Sophie Chen Keller

lines on the record: 50
first: 2026-06-16
most recent: 2026-06-16
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Because it's easy to choose to stay at home, which is this place where we feel safe and comfortable, but an easy life is not the same thing as a good life. And it's probably the opposite because it's in times of great challenge and great uncertainty and great risk that we can transform ourselves and rise up and do something equally great.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With the ending, you know, there's a line to come home. You have to journey forth. And I knew that was what I wanted, sort of the overarching message I wanted people to take away. You know, it's easy to come.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When Song first receives the news, she's in denial, and then she's in shock. Blue is cut so suddenly and unexpectedly from her life that she knows that he's gone, but she still feels his presence. It's like a phantom limb or something. Know her, she hasn't caught up with this new reality yet. And so when something happens, she feels this instinct to text him and to tell him about it. And the poignant thing about her situation is that even when she does catch up to this new reality, that new reality is not so different from her old reality because they're used to being separated and”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Lot of the pieces that he plays in the book are pieces I've played. Not the Tchaikovsky. I can't play that. But, you know, his experiences performing on the stage, I drew from my own experiences performing. And the way he practices, he'll syncopate rhythms, or if he's working on a tricky passage, he'll bring it up to speed slowly, one metronome notch at a time, or the way he practices three notes in one hand versus seven in the other hand in La La Cereza. I mean, these are ways that I know how to practice.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And in recent years, I've started And that started after my son was born. I was reading that classical music was good for babies brain development, and so I started playing him recordings of my favorite pieces back in the day. And I must have been listening to so much music during the day that at night when I woke up, I would notice this ache in my hands, almost as if my fingers wanted to stretch and play those pieces again. And so once life settled down a bit, I bought a third hand Yamaha upright and I dug up my old music scores and I started relearning some of my favorite pieces and I started with Hungarian Rhapsody number six which is a piece that river plays.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do not have perfect pitch, and I'm not anywhere near a prodigy. But like I said, I started learning the piano when I was seven, and it wasn't until I was in middle school that I became more serious about it. I saw an ad for the Disney Youth Orchestra and they were looking for a new pianist. And so I thought, I'm going to be Disney's pianist. And so I started practicing an hour a day or an hour and a half a day. And I filled out an application form and I sent in an audition tape and I never heard back. But the habit of practicing an hour and a half a day stuck with me. And so that's how I became a decent pianist in a really ordinary way in high school. I won a local competition, but I wouldn't be able to win anything bigger. And when I went to college, I stopped this habit of practicing every day. And for many years, I didn't touch a”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, exactly. And later in the book, you know, Phyllis offers river resources, mentorship, education. These are things that Song wants to give him. And I think across all three styles, there is love there. Even with Song's own mother, but she's just, this is the way she knows how to express it.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The Way Songs Mother Mothers is a reflection, I think, of the way she was mothered. And the way Song Mother's River is a reaction to how she was mothered. Yeah, she showers river with all the warmth and affection that she had longed for from her own mother and never got.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the early weeks where she's still bleeding, those were physical realities of motherhood that had taken me by surprise. I didn't know about them. And the process of writing all of that was like building a bridge and it connected who I had been as a writer with who I had become as a mother.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just very, very palpable that love. And so I wondered how did you draw on your experiences as a mother in crafting those moments. Right. When I started writing this book, I was so excited to get back to writing and to write about all these motherhood related topics, those precious, tender, fleeting moments of, you know, snuggling with your baby and giggling together and seeing those little personalities emerge and seeing the world through their eyes. And, you know, there's a scene in the book where song is eating lunch and she starts leaking breast milk onto her shirt.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, first of all, thank you so much for this opportunity. And congratulations on this achievement. I'm now itching to read the luster of lost things My question relates to how this book resonated the most with me, which is Song Ceaseless Will to Want to Give Her Little Boy a better life than obviously the one that she had. And just an undying devotion. And that's because, of course, I was blessed, I am blessed with a mother who fled Iran and she ended up in Turkey, had to pay smugglers to take my brother and I to Greece. And then finally she got a golden ticket and came to Canada and she certainly achieved that goal. And now I'm a new mother myself, my little boy's a year and a half. As a new mother, you don't really feel like the world appreciates these moments, the sleepless nights, the postpartum period, and you capture those moments so beautifully. I remember one line about Rivers' hand on his possessive hand on his mother's breast. And it was...”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let them know that they are seen, and I hope that everyone reading the story will live in these homes with them. We felt it missed them. Yeah.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know these homes very well, said You know, I know this one room with a gigantic hearth bed and the folding tables you take out for meals and when the meal's done you fold it away. I know these little kitchens with the single giant walk and the basin of water for ladling and I've lived in many of these homes and that's because I was born in northeastern China in a rural area a lot like Songs Lakeyard. My great-grandparents were farmers and fishermen. My grandfather on one side was a machine repair technician and on the other side a middle school teacher and my aunts and uncles were petty cab drivers. They were food cart vendors and they and people like them are the ones who built modern China and yet so few stories are written about them. And so I wrote this story.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I didn't know what it meant. But then I started thinking, you know, there are three strands to the story, song story in the present. I'll call that strand A song story in the past. I'll call that B and River Story. I'll call that C. And I wonder what happens if I just start braiding them, A, B, C, B, B, A, B, C, B. And almost all the pieces fell into place. And I knew that was the way to tell Song and River story.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Originally, the story was written in chronological order, and it started with River's birth in the northeast. And as it was progressing, it wasn't feeling right. It didn't have the right balance. It's like when you're eating a dish of food and it's only sweet or only salty, it gets one dimensional. But if it's sweet and salty and bitter and acidic and spicy and all of the flavors, each bite is exciting and you want to keep eating. And so that's what I wanted from the structure of the book. And so I started at different points in time and I must have completely torn down and rewritten the whole book at least three or four times. And one day I was facing yet another total teardown and rewrite when I had this sudden very clear but very random image in my mind of a braid.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So China's development is interesting because it went through leaps where it changed a lot in a short period of time. And I got to personally witness these leaps through my visits each time I went back to see my family in the Northeast. One summer I would go back and the streets would be made of dirt and people are using cash and they don't have so much of it. They're just trying to keep their bellies full. And the next time I go back, those same streets are paved and broadened and landscaped with trees and flowers and people have more cash and they're buying appliances with it or landline phones. And then when I moved there in 2019, the cash was gone and everything was done on a smartphone. And for the structure and the flashbacks,”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My uncle, for a time, lived and worked in Beijing as a taxi driver. And when I went to visit him, he lived way, way outside of the city in this area that smelled so strongly of sewage because these homes didn't have flushing toilets. So people would empty their waste in their trash right outside their door in an open canal. And so it's a bit of an interesting perspective having lived on both sides of this track that otherwise would never touch.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then when I moved to Beijing and I lived there as an adult, I saw all that the city had to offer for those who could afford it. You know, the wealthy, the powerful, the educated. And as an expat, I lived in a central location and I lived in a nice high-rise compound and I could go to nice restaurants. I could install heavy-duty air purifiers. I could buy imported fruits and vegetables and drink filtered imported water. And that kind of life, it runs parallel to the lives lived by all the migrant workers who built the city, but they can't afford to live in it and they can't enjoy all that it has to offer. But I also know life on the other side of that parallel track.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So growing up, I was aware of the differences between what I had and what my cousins had going back for the summer, I would come with a suitcase full of clothes and they would have two or three outfits that they rotated between the whole summer. And I understood that the difference was because I lived in the US and my parents were educated. And as a kid, I kind of just accepted it as a fact. And I didn't have any other reference point. I only lived with my relatives when I went back to China.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, so those notes on the power line are not just random notes. If you play them, you hear the opening melody to Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. The melody played by the strings Now you have to try flying it. Yeah.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So there are a handful of concertos that have taken on this mythical status. There are movies made about them. They strike fear into the heart of every pianist, and they're widely regarded as some of the most difficult pieces a pianist can learn. And I wanted to choose one of those legendary concertos to represent this dream of greatness, that song and river have. And I chose Tchaikovsky's first because it felt so much like this book itself. It's big and sweeping with equally big emotions and it's noble enough to feel like a home coming, but nostalgic enough to feel like a home calling.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think motherhood can change our lives and ourselves into something different and even unrecognizable at times. I think for song, this concept of balancing being a mom with having a life outside of the kids is not at all on her mind because her life simply does not allow for it. She spends nearly every waking moment working to survive and support her family. She doesn't have the time or the resources to cultivate a hobby or go on vacation or even meet a friend for coffee. You know, her courtship with blue, they don't sit down and have a meal together or go out and do a fun activity. They are getting to know each other while walking to and from work.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, it's amazing. This is the first early feedback. So it's just. It's really cool. The book has been just mine for so long, and now it's.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, exactly. And so I drew on all of that as I wrote songs journey as she is waiting to find her son while, you know, at the same time trying to build a new life for herself. And I drew on it, especially with the ending. You know, song doesn't get thyroid cancer, but I hope my specific emotional truth is what makes her journey feel authentic and universal.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, they do. They remove the thyroid. It's thyroidectomy, and then you do what's called radioactive iodine therapy. Yeah. But I understand now what it feels like to carry around this uncertainty as you're waiting for your diagnosis and you're waiting for surgery and treatment. You're waiting to recover then you're waiting for your follow-ups and you have to do all of this waiting while carrying out your normal day-to-day life. You have to take care of the kids.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So when I started writing the book, I didn't know what exactly songs journey would look like. I didn't have the plot points mapped out and I didn't know where things were headed. I just took it a day at a time. And as I was approaching the end, I felt like it would be bittersweet because a straightforward happily ever after is just not in the cards for someone like Song But I tried one way and it wasn't working, and I tried rewriting it different way, and it still wasn't resonating. And around that time, I went to the doctor for my normal annual checkup. And, you know, how they feel along the sides of your neck? Yeah. And this time she was fueling and she found a lump. And it turned out to be thyroid cancer. And I was totally shocked because I'm in my 30s and I had no other complaints.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You have to face obstacles and you have to keep going, and you have to face more obstacles, and you still have to keep going, and you have to hit rock bottom, and you still have to keep going before things can turn around. And so for me, the difference between despairing and giving up and persisting in keeping the faith was not so much the things that happened to me, how many good, how many bad, but the narrative I could tell myself of the things that happened to me. and the way I could connect and interpret those events.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes You know, I think that so with this book, it's been a long journey. It's been a long winding and bumpy road. My first book came out almost 10 years ago. And in the next few years, I worked on a different book. And my agent at the time, my first agent, he didn't like it and he dropped me. And then I spent years working on Little Wonder. And my second agent saw an earlier version of Little Wonder and she didn't like it. She dropped me too. And in the midst of all of that, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And, you know, each time I was knocked back, I thought about this story that I wanted to tell and how I could make it more powerful. And each time the thought of implementing those changes made me excited. And I kept reminding myself in any good...”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. She was only making nine hundred, my dad as well nine hundred each, and so we didn't have the resources to spare for things like this.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I started learning the piano when I was seven years old My mom signed me up for group piano lessons at the local library and, you know, I enjoy the lessons. And so she found a private instructor for me and she bought me a used piano for $500. And, you know, at the time, they were teaching assistants. My parents are.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And actually, the first versions of this book had much less of Rivers' perspective. It was mainly song's journey and song story. And with each iteration of the book, River's role grew. And that's because song's life is difficult and her perspective can start feeling quite heavy. But River as a child, he approaches the world with openness, with more wonder, and so the world takes on this almost magical quality.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, at the time, we were living in Columbus, Ohio, and my parents are graduate students, so we lived in this housing complex for graduate student family similar to ours. And I remember the friends I made there. And I remember playing with them all day in the summers until the sunset. And I remember catching fireflies. I remember how big the world seemed and how magical these bedtime stories were. And so it was easy for me to access memories of that magical time.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Chinese, the Chinese do have social media, but they don't have American Western social media apps. They don't have a Facebook equivalent. The way their social media works is in order to find someone, you need to have their QR code to scan or you need their number or at least be in sort of the same social circles. Otherwise, you know, there are so many people. There aren't that many names. You know, you would never find her. It's like a needle in a haystack.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there are a lot of people. And, you know, so much of this book hinges on injustice and inequality, and that's part of the reason they can't find each other, because song is who she is”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. They get separated in a crowded train station in Beijing over the Chinese New Year. And there are so many people traveling during this period of time that it's been called the biggest human migration on the planet. So the train station is packed and they're not able to find each other again. And so they spend years of their lives searching for each other while having to make new and very different lives for themselves.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Monday through Friday every day, but I have become less precious about my routine now that I have two kids. When the edits for Little Wonder came in, my daughter was four months old. And so I did those edits with her sleeping on my chest, and I would type one-handed on my laptop. I was still in bed, so this was the similar part of the routine.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I like structure. So I have a simple routine. I try to keep two. I have a cup of coffee in the morning and then I start writing. And the most important thing for me is that I have no distraction. And so I do my writing from bed because this is the place where no one is bothering me. And I'm totally relaxed and comfortable. I'm not distracted by a squeaky chair or my back hurting or anything. And I can just totally focus on the words on the screen. And the other thing I need is to have a long stretch of time to produce a short stretch of words. I do about 700 words a day and it takes me five, six, seven, eight hours to produce that. I think my brain is like a slow cooker and it just... It just slowly breaks down the scene and lets the emotions and elements mingle and hopefully deepen.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All young mothers, yes. Yeah, and have a cup of coffee without microwaving it five times before getting a chance to finish it. And you know what? As it turns out, time just keeps going on. And everything is temporary. Every hard phase passes. And one day baby is just older. And then you start incorporating elements of the old self into the new one. And for me, that happened in earnest when my son started daycare. And I went from having no time to myself to suddenly having this glorious stretch of hours every morning. And so I opened up my laptop, opened up a Word doc, and I started writing this book. And I got to talk about all those motherhood related things I had been dying to talk about.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And the only thing that consoled him was bouncing on this yoga ball. So I would all day and all night just hold him on my shoulder and bounce him on this yoga ball. And for the first day of his life, he had a cow's milk protein allergy, which meant that I had to cut dairy and soy out of my diet. And so I just had the sense that my life no longer belonged to me and I missed my old life and my old self where I could eat whatever I wanted. I could use the bathroom by myself in peace. I could have described.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At the time, I had just become a mom. And motherhood was all I was thinking about, you know, for the first two years of my son's life, I was just completely consumed by mothering. in the very best ways and also in challenging ways. I learned just how much love I could carry around. But to go with that, how much worry, everything I was constantly Googling various symptoms and everything became a potential problem that had to be solved. And I was sleeping one or two hours at a time. And so I learned just how much exhaustion I could carry around. My son was an intense, sensitive baby, so he did a lot of screaming.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The title actually came at the end after the manuscript was done. And as I was brainstorming ideas, this phrase little wonder jumped out at me because it just encapsulates the way we feel when we're holding a little baby and looking into that little face.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, on foot. They would hold their bags on foot, literally sprinting past me as I push my little stroller. Yeah, and I wondered where they had come from. I wondered what their stories were and what the job was like and what their lives were like. And so I just followed my wonder. And that was the beginning of who Song would be.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we settled into our new routines there. And as part of mine, I would take my son out for these long walks because he napped in a moving stroller. So I would just walk around for two hours and observe everything around me. And I was struck by just the sheer number of delivery workers that filled the streets. And delivery workers of all kinds. There would be package delivery workers and they would just set up shop in the middle of the sidewalk surrounded by all their boxes and their bubble wrap. And there would be grocery delivery workers. There were the food delivery workers. They normally wore bright yellow uniforms and they would literally sprint past me in the streets carrying their orders. And I was really curious about them. I wondered if they made their delivery on time and I wondered.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. So in 2019, we moved from New Jersey to Beijing. My son was four months old at the time. And we're moving from my husband's work. And when I got to China, this version of China in 2019 was totally different from the China I remembered as a child. The city was super modern and clean and beautiful. At the same time, the air pollution was so heavy you could see it hanging like a thick fog. And I saw lots of very rich people living alongside lots of very poor people. And regardless of their socioeconomic status, everyone lived these technologically advanced lives. You know, they would just leave their homes in the morning with only a phone in their pocket. There was no need for a wallet. Everything was virtually cashless. I remember the first time I saw a beggar collecting change not in a styrofoam cup, but with a QR code, and you would scan it and just send them money directly into their mobile wallet.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, he worked in finance originally and he wanted to save the world. And so he went back to graduate school and majored in law and diplomacy. Yeah.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And before my husband and I were married, we were talking about our dreams for the future. And we thought, why not pursue those dreams today? We'll hold hands and close our eyes and just take this jump together. And so we both quit our jobs and he went back to graduate school and I started writing what his dream was to go to grad.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was so excited and I was handing these issues to my friends and teachers. But then when I went to college, I thought I'd better be practical. And so I majored in economics. And after graduating, I worked for a few years in the corporate world”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was 13 right at the store and the issue came out when I was in high school. I remember bringing author copies. That's got to be so.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes Yeah, I came to the US when I was four, and so my first language was Mandarin Chinese. I didn't speak any English yet. And so to help me learn, my mom would check out stacks of books from the library. And every night before bed, she would spend an hour reading out loud to me until she lost her voice. And so I grew up loving these children's classics like James and the Giant Peach and Charlotte's Webb. And as soon as I could hold a pencil, I was scribbling little stories of my own. If anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, I want to be a writer. And when I was 13, I wrote a short story about a petty cab driver in rural China. And this story was just plucked out of the slush pile by the editors at Glimmertray and Leary magazine. And that became my first publication.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The first two years of my son's life, I was just completely consumed by mothering. In the very best ways and also in challenging ways. I was sleeping one or two hours at a time, and so I learned just how much exhaustion I could carry around. My son was an intense, sensitive baby, so he did a lot of screaming.”
2026-06-16 · The Oprah Podcast · Sophie Chen Keller: "Little Wonder" | Oprah's Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT