Quotes from Celeste Ng

Here, people hold bags not meant to carry, but to be pretty.

American Terror gives an

Her brother himself stood silent, awed and grateful, 1981 glistening in his eyes like a beautiful far-off star, and something wobbled inside Lydia and tumbled into her chest with a clang.

The things that go unsaid are often the things that eat at you - whether because you didn't get to have your say, or because the other person never got to hear you and really wanted to.

In her parents' house, things had been good or bad, right or wrong, useful or wasteful. There had been nothing in between. Here, she found, everything had nuance; everything had an unrevealed side or unexplored depths. Everything was worth looking at more closely.

She buried her nose in Lydia's hair and made silent promises. Never to tell her to sit up straight, to find a husband, to keep a house. Never to suggest that there were jobs or lives or worlds not meant for her; never to let her hear doctor and think only man. To encourage her, for the rest of her life, to do more than her mother had.

As time went on, the concern unhooked itself from the fear and took on a life of its own. She had learned, with Izzy's birth, how your life could trundle along on its safe little track and then, with no warning, skid spectacularly off course. Every time Mrs. Richardson looked at Izzy, that feeling of things spiraling out of control coiled around her again, like a muscle she didn't know how to unclench.

Her womb was not an apartment for rent.

even before the nurses had wiped the baby clean, even before they had cut the cord—touched every part of her child, her tiny flaring nostrils and the faint shadows of her eyebrows and the womb-slicked soles of her feet, making certain she was wholly present, learning her by heart.)

Even her beloved Warren gave up at that point -- "I don't need to know how it works, Mi," he told her at last, "I just want to see the pictures" -- and Mia realized that she was crossing into a place she would have to go alone.

that attention came with expectations that—like snow—drifted and settled and crushed you with their weight.

Under Pearl's guidance, the jeans came to $4, Pearl's entire bag to $13.75, and Lexie was so pleased that she pulled into the Wendy's drive-through and treated them to a Frosty apiece. "Those jeans fit you like they were made for you," Pearl told her in return. "You were destined to have

You weren't wrong, Margaret said at last. You weren't wrong. But neither was Marie. A small tug at a complicated knot that would take generations to unpick.

Something his father once said comes back to him: the shelves around him are not just book holders but the iron skeleton of the building itself, holding the library upright.

She buried her nose in Lydia's hair and made silent promises. Never to tell her to sit up straight, to find a husband, to keep a house. Never to suggest that there were jobs or lives or worlds not meant for her; never to let her hear doctor and think only man. To encourage her, for the rest of her life, to do more than her mother had. "All

Perfectly serviceable, Mrs. Richardson thought. Two bedrooms, one for the adults and one for the boys. The girls—for she was still certain Izzy would be back with them shortly—could sleep on the three-season porch. A bathroom and a half—well, they would have to share.

At the sight of her on the phone, a lightness crossed his face, like clouds shifting after strong wind. She saw him as he must have looked when he was young, long before she had been born: boyishly hopeful, possibilities turning his eyes into stars.

For as long as she could remember, Pearl had understood the hierarchy: her mother's real work was her art, and whatever paid the bills existed only to make that art possible.

database at Ellis Island

Dave Matthews Band was dope; Bryan Adams was jake. Getting to third base was dope; being grounded was jake. After that, he'd stayed upstairs when Tim came over, and was meanly glad when he and Trip began to drift apart. Now here was Tim calling Moody's name—his

but she knew that something had shifted inside her sister, that she was balanced on a dangerous, high-up ledge. She sat very still, as if one wrong move might top Lydia off the edge, and Lydia blew out the flames with one quick puff.

up there: nothing but stars.

Ter permissão para fazer algo e saber fazer algo são coisas diferentes.

she'd never known. No, she admitted to herself: she'd never chosen to know.