Quotes from Amy Tan

Why would any writer in her right mind ever consider making a movie instead? That's like going from being a monk or a nun to serving as a camp counselor for hundreds of problem children.

She said that if I listened to her, later I would know what she knew: where true words came from, always from up high, above everything else. And if I didn't listen to her, she said my ear would bend too easily to other people, all saying words that had no lasting meaning, because they came from the bottom of their hearts, where their own desires lived, a place where I could not belong.

Why does love end so quickly and hatred last without end?

Pero yo estaba muy mimada por su culpa. Nunca me había enseñado a tener en cuenta sus sentimientos y por ello el ama sólo era para mí alguien que me ofrecía comodidad, como un ventilador en verano o una estufa en invierno, una bendición que sólo aprecias y quieres cuando ya no está presente.

I wiped my eyes and looked in the mirror. I was surprised at what I saw. I had on a beautiful red dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind.

Why did I need to see someone else's bad luck? To feel glad it was not mine? To scare myself into thinking it still might be?

I was returning with myself whole and unbroken—limbs, mind, and spirit. I had discarded pride, that useless burden of self-importance

Even if I could live forever," she said to the baby, "I still don't know which way I would teach you. I was once so free and innocent. I too laughed for no reason. "But later I threw away my foolish innocence to protect myself. And then I taught my daughter, your mother, to shed her innocence so she would not be hurt as well.

I once thought love was supposed to be nothing but bliss. I now know it is also worry and grief, hope and trust.

With imagined tragedy hovering over us, we became inseparable, two halves creating the whole: yin and yang.

We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable

Acaso el odio no es un simple resultado del amor herido?

How to obey parents and listen to your mother's mind. How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities. Why easy things are not worth pursuing. How to know your own worth and polish it, never flashing it around like a cheap ring. Why Chinese thinking is best.

And now at the airport, after shaking hands with everybody, waving good-bye, I think about all the different ways we leave people in this world. Cheerily waving good-bye to some at airports, knowing we'll never see each other again. Leaving others on the side of the road, hoping that we will.

The moment is altered as soon as I try to capture it, so for me, it's impossible." How true, I thought. Moments are gone as soon as you think about them.

And later, I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control. i found out the most I could have was hope, and with that I was not denying any possibility, good or bad.

Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. You have to pay attention to what you lost. You have to undo the expectation.

Now you see why it is useless to cry. Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy.

And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. You have to pay attention to what you lost. You have to undo the expectation.

I threw my head back and smiled proudly to myself. And then I draped the large embroidered red scarf over my face and covered these thoughts up. But underneath the scarf I still knew who I was. I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents' wishes, but I would never forget myself.

I was born in the year of the Tiger. It was a very bad year to be born, a very good year to be a Tiger.

She didn't even pause to think. She simply said in a way that made it clear there was no more to the story: Your father is not my first husband. You are not those babies.

I remember all these things. And tonight, on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, I also remember what I asked the Moon Lady so long ago. I wished to be found.

i daydreamed about being somewhere else, about being someone else.