Quotes from Amy Tan

I can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place.

What's the point?" I say. "There's no hope. There's no reason to keep trying." "Because you must," she says. "This is not hope. Not reason. This is your fate. This is your life, what you must do.

My mother knows how to hit a nerve. And the pain I feel is worse than any other kind of misery. Because what she does always comes as a shock, exactly like an electric jolt, that grounds itself permanently in my memory.

Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other people's ideas, unable to stand on your own. [...] Too much water and you flowed in too many directions.

So we decided to hold parties and pretend each week had become the new year. Each week we could forget past wrongs done to us. We weren't allowed to think a bad thought. We feasted, we laughed, we played games, lost and won, we told the best stories. And each week, we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our only joy.

I wanted everything for you to be better. I wanted you to have the best circumstances, the best character. I didn't want you to regret anything. And that's why I named you Waverly. It was the name of the street we lived on. And I wanted you to think, this is where I belong. But I also knew if I named you after this street, soon you would grow up, leave this place, and take a piece of me with you.

I asked myself, What is true about a person? Would I change in the same way the river changes color but still be the same person? And then I saw the curtains blowing wildly, and outside rain was falling harder, causing everyone to scurry and shout. I smiled. And then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wing. I couldn't see the wind itself, but I could see it carried the water that filled the rivers and shaped the countryside. It caused men to yelp and dance.

I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents' wishes, but I would never forget myself.

I think about our two faces. I think about my intentions. Which one is American? Which one is Chinese? Which one is better? If you show one, you must always sacrifice the other.

Finish your coffee," I told her yesterday. "Don't throw your blessings away." "Don't be so old-fashioned, Ma," she told me, finishing her coffee down the sink. "I'm my own person." And I think, How can she be her own person? When did I give her up?

I was appalled at the idea. Evaporate? Would that happen to me? I wanted to expand, to fill the void, to reclaim all that I had wasted. I wanted to fill the silence with all the words I had not yet spoken.

They say this is what happens if you lack metal. You begin to think as an independent person.

No puedes tener suerte cuando otra persona tiene habilidad.

when fate turns out well, everyone should forget the bad road that got us here.

No es que fuéramos unas desalmadas insensibles al dolor. Todas estábamos atemorizadas, todas teníamos que sobrellevar nuestras desgracias, pero desesperar era tanto como desear algo que ya estaba perdido o prolongar lo que ya era de por sí insoportable.

The wound begins to close in on itself, to protect what is hurting so much. And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath, what started the pain.

Qué era peor, nos preguntábamos entre nosotras, sentarnos y esperar la muerte con el rostro apropiadamente sombrío, o buscar una manera de ser felices a pesar de todo?

Vergüenza es caerte cuando nadie empuja.

Americans don't really look at one another when talking. They talk to their reflections. They look at others or themselves only when they think nobody is watching. So they never see how they really look. They see themselves smiling without their mouth open, or turned to the side where they cannot see their faults.

Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish.

I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents' wishes, but I would not forget myself.

Auntie had a tongue like hungry scissors eating silk cloth.

But my main motivation is fear of regret. I worry that if I didn't go, one day I'd look back and wonder, What if I had?

But in art, lovely subversive art, you see what breaks through in spite of restraint, or even because of it. Art despises placidity and smooth surfaces. Without art, I would have drowned under still waters.