“Inspiration isn’t really something you can control…is it? It hits when it wants to hit.”

Mr. Yang speaks these words to his wife as the two lie in bed together. As such, this setting represents one of the most intimate and private spaces. Here and elsewhere, Mr. Yang confides in his wife as he contemplates writing a book about sports at Bishop O’Dowd, the high school where he teaches math. These lines represent the artistic side of Mr. Yang, who stereotypes himself as a comic-book writer and math teacher who doesn’t ordinarily take an interest in athletics.

“I’ve hated sports ever since I was a little kid! Especially basketball.”

Here, the author and protagonist Gene Luen Yang introduces himself candidly and thoroughly. This comic panel shows Mr. Yang looking out at the audience, breaking the fourth wall. This quote, an example of direct characterization in the first person, helps the reader to understand Yang’s disposition. The reader will also note the irony that an individual who, by his own admission, hates sports will undertake to write a novel about a sports team.

“You tell everybody down in Southern California that Lou Richie’s about to bring the championship home for Northern California.”

These lines are spoken by the young Lou Richie within Yang’s chapter on “Coach Lou,” as he is called throughout the novel.