Quotes from Lisa See

One day—and it only takes one moment to change your life forever—

Stories tell us how we should live.

Parents exist in children,' Grandmother said to bolster my confidence. 'Your mother will always exist in you. She will give you strength wherever you go.

When you lose your home country, what do you preserve and what do you abandon?

I'd never waste the hours of light in the darkness of slumber.

of thought—months, alone, of thought.

As A-ma said, every story, every dream, every waking minute of our lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another.

Everything always returns to the beginning.

Blessings and worry, happiness and fear – this is a mother's love.

The fallen leaves return to the root.

Because inside we still carry the dreams of what could have been, of what should have been, of what we wish could still be. This doesn't mean we aren't content. We are content, but the romantic longings of our girlhood have never entirely left us. It's like Yen-Yen said all those years ago: 'I look in the mirror and I'm surprised by what I see.' I look in the mirror and still expect to see my Shanghai-girl self- not the wife and mother I've become.

You can't learn about living unless you live. You can't live unless you take a chance; and your living is limited by the chances you take.

Other kids get white rice, but the food you give us makes it look like we're living a subsistence life." "I buy white rice for the New Year's Festival," I said, stung. Then, defensively, "I often put barley in your lunch –" "Which is even more embarrassing, because that means we're really poor." "What a lucky child you are to say that. You don't know what poor means –

Sometimes you must experience heartache to have a treasured result.

I used to think mothers-in-law are difficult the world over, but on that day I came to understand that they're simply unknowable.

What husband wants a wife who thinks she's smarter than he is?

How different it is with friendship. No one picks a friend for us; we come together by choice. We are not tied together through ceremony or the responsibility to create a son; we tie ourselves together through moments. The spark when we first meet. Laughter and tears shared. Secrets packed away to be treasured, hoarded, and protected. The wonder that someone can be so different from you and yet still understand your heart in a way no one else ever will.

It may be that the numinous spirit of the written word does not perish and so, too, bestows life after death.

Every mother must leave her children to work, and every mother suffers, bu we do it.

As for children, every woman knows the fears and sorrows. Joy is a delicious luxury that we experience most cautiously, for tragedy conceals itself around every corner.

My mother had died in the sea, but we could never forget that it gave us life.

because sometimes it's just so damn hard to be a mother. We have to wait and wait and wait for our children to open their hearts to us. And if that doesn't work, we have to bide our time and look for the moment of weakness when we can sneak back into their lives and they will see us and remember us for the people who love them unconditionally.

The government labels the haenyeo a cultural heritage treasure—something dying out that must be preserved, if only in memory. How does it feel to be the last of the last?" If they're academics, they'll want to talk about Jeju's matrifocal culture, explaining, "It's not a matriarchy. Rather, it's a society focused on women.

huigan—causes us to turn inward and reflect as the liquor coats our tongues, shimmers down our throats, and then rises again as fragrance. The Daoists see tea as a way to regulate internal alchemy, be in harmony with the natural world, and serve as an ingredient in the elixir of immortality. Together, these three