Quotes from Amy Tan

I grew up with Bible stories, which are like fairy tales, because my father was a minister. We heard verses and prayers every day. I liked the gorier Bible stories. I did have a book of Chinese fairy tales. All the people except the elders looked like Italians. But we were not a family that had fiction books.

how can the world in all its chaos come up with so many coincidences, so many similarities and exact opposites?

If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever. -An-mei

I would still like to have that luxury, to be able to just sit and draw for hours and hours and hours. In a way, that's what I do as a writer.

I feel I've always been writing about self-identity. How do we become who we are? So I'm just writing from experience what's concerned me.

I read a book a day when I was a kid. My family was not literary; we did not have any books in the house.

Whenever I'm with my [teenager] I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.

No one can travel your own road for you you must travel it for yourself. My faith in this stems from my childhood. I grew up in a family with a system of religious beliefs handed down to me.

I didn't fear failure. I expected failure.

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.