Quotes from Lan Cao

The miracle of it is this: how little things from such a long time ago can still be remembered as if they had occurred only yesterday.

Things that matter come in sets of twos. Two eyes, two ears. Two kisses on the cheeks, one on each. Two lungs. Two arms. Two legs. I would not be completely blind if I lost one eye... But because we have one heart, there is no second one that can serve as a reserve when the first is stricken by sorrow.

Boys start life on one side of the equation and girls on another side, our father explains. The boys' side has additions and the girls' subtractions. Girls have been unfairly pushed onto the margins where human failings will harm them more. "That," he said, "is human history.

How much, if at all, do we let go of grief, even as we proclaim the need to leave it in the past?

We were, after all, a ragtag accumulation of unwanted, an awkward reminder of a war the whole country was trying to forget.

We don't say "I love you" or "thank you" to our parents because it would feel contrived to say those words to ourselves. Our parents and we are one and the same.