Quotes from Lisa See

La felicità nasce dalla sofferenza, è questo ho intuito.

Deep love-true-heart love-must grow. Back then I didn't yet understand the burning kind of love, so instead I thought about the rice paddies I used to see on my daily walks down to the river with my brother when I still had all my milk teeth. Maybe I could make our love grow like a farmer made his crop to grow-through hard work, unwavering will, and the blessings of nature. How funny that I can remember that even now! Waaa! I knew so little about life, but I knew enough to think like a farmer.

To us, she was like a rare bird that had escaped its cage and was roaming through a courtyard of common chickens.

The machete has been tested, and the rice already cooked.

All things not at peace will cry out.

The fear of death was a powerful aphrodisiac.

Her restraint and control taught me a lesson I have not strayed from to this day. You may be desperate, but never let anyone see you as anything less than a cultivated woman.

It was easier for me to begin picking at Snow Flower's faults than to feel the emotions raging inside of me.

To protect my heart, this is what I would have to do with Snow Flower. I couldn't let anyone know I was dying from anguish that she no longer loved me.

What the body knows and what the mind chooses to believe are two different things, after all.

It has been said that marriages are arranged by Heaven, that destiny will bring even the most distantly separated people together, that all is settled before birth, and no matter how much we wander from our paths, no matter how our fortunes change—for good or bad—all we can do is accomplish the decree of fate. This, in the end, is our blessing and our heartbreak.

They say nothing to me in a very loud way.

Don't blame yourself for things that maybe happened," she said.

A woman isn't just one thing. The past is in us, constantly changing us. Heartache and failure shift perspectives as do joy and triumphs.

To believe in dreams is to spend half your life asleep.

Give a low man one ounce of power and he'll throw ten thousand pounds of bricks on your head.

And here is the mother tree, A-ma continues. Her voice is at once softer and filled with more emotion than it ever is during ceremonial sacrifices. She places her palms on the trunk as delicatly as she did on De-jas' belly. Isn't she beautiful? These trees are sacred, A-ma states simply. And those yellow threads are the mother tree's most precious gift. I've helped many with the leaves and threads of the mother tree when all else failed.

We view the world very much as peasants in the countryside have for millennia. they've alsways said that the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, meaning palace intrigues and imperial threats have no impact on their lives.

There was a typhoon the day you were born... It is said that a Dragon born in a storm will have a particularly tempestuous fate. You always believe you are right, and this makes you do things you shouldn't... You're a Dragon, and of all the signs only a Dragon can tame the fates. Only a Dragon can wear all the horns of destiny, duty, and power. Your sister is merely a Sheep...

a traditional Cantonese gift: a tin of imported Danish cookies.

all mistakes are my own

And it confused me to think that the cloven-footed ones could have so many marvelous creations.

I don't want her to either, which is exactly what I've been saying. Still, there's a part of me that hates that our family businesses- the very things that have kept Joy fed, clothed, and housed- are so embarrassing to her...We raised our children to be Americans, but what we wanted were proper Chinese sons and daughters.

You are a haenyeo! Never for one moment believe you are unworthy.