Khong discusses how her path to fiction was shaped by pragmatic choices, like pursuing journalism to meet her immigrant parents’ expectations, and later pivoting from grueling content work to an MFA and magazine editing. She emphasizes the emotional labor of writing—not just crafting sentences, but protecting one’s inner life amid public scrutiny and industry pressures. Her novel *Real Americans* emerges from a deep interest in the limits of human connection: how we fail to fully know or convey ourselves, yet persist in trying. Nonfiction, especially immersive pieces like her oyster trail essay, served as essential training—grounding her fiction in sensory detail and real-world complexity. She rejects the conflation of author and narrator, insisting fiction’s power lies in its capacity to hold ambiguity, contradiction, and the quiet, unglamorous work of empathy. Throughout, she underscores resilience rooted not in supplements or shortcuts, but in self-awareness, boundary-setting, and fidelity to artistic curiosity over external validation.