Ke Huy Quan Promotes Debut Memoir 'Never Say Die,' Recalling Refugee Roots and Hollywood Comeback
Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan's debut memoir, Never Say Die, was published on September 15 by Grand Central Publishing. On October 9 he joined Amna Nawaz on PBS NewsHour's Settle In podcast, and on October 11 NBC's Sunday TODAY aired his conversation with Willie Geist, recorded at Phoenix Palace in New York City's Chinatown. Both appearances centered on the book.
Quan retraced his family's journey: as a child he fled post-war Vietnam with his family before they settled in Los Angeles, near Chinatown. Cast at 12 through an open call, he played Short Round in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Data in The Goonies (1985). The memoir's title nods to a famous Goonies line.
The book also covers the long quiet stretch after child stardom: roles dried up, and Quan moved behind the camera, graduating from USC's film school in 1999 and working as a stunt choreographer and assistant director, away from acting for more than two decades. Quan has said that writing the book made him realize his father had modeled "never giving up" his whole life, and that the hardest chapters to write were those "quiet years" of rejection and uncertainty.
He returned to the screen in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), winning the Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has since appeared in Loki season 2 and Love Hurts, and voiced a character in Zootopia 2. (GSM, based on PBS NewsHour, NBC and Kirkus reporting)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：关继威2023年5月在白宫出席活动时发言。图片来源：白宫官方照片／Wikimedia Commons（公共领域）。Photo: Ke Huy Quan speaking at the White House in May 2023. Credit: Official White House photo / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
