Quotes About Amy Tan

She said 'I'm by commission. You don't have to pay anything until you sell anything.' I said, 'Well fine. You want to be my agent and not make anything.' I thought, 'Boy, is she dumb.'

I was shocked, and I ended up contacting three academics to find out if it could possibly be that my grandmother was a courtesan.

I loved fairy tales when I was a kid. Grimm. The grimmer the better. I loved gruesome gothic tales and, in that respect, I liked Bible stories, because to me they were very gothic.

Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.

All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. -Ying Ying

And when I say that is certainly true, that our marriage is over. I know what else she will say: Then you must save it. And even though I know it's hopeless- there's absolutely nothing left to save-I'm afraid if I tell her that, she'll still persuade me to try.

My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes.

But he was so attuned to my every movement I was sure he was reading my mind. HE had no inhibitions, and whatever ones he discovered I had he'd pry away from me like little treasures.

Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.

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.

What I realized about the dreamland, however, was the power it once held simply by being withheld from me. It created yearning—and also purpose. It demanded the best of me to meet my purpose: diligence, intelligence, and an understanding of

May the dog-mother rut with a dead devil!

Later, Miss Banner pointed to a man trying to squeeze a barrel that was too large through a doorway that was too small. Hope. Miss Banner said. But to me, this was not hope, this was stupidity, rice for brains. ... I wondered whether foreigners had feelings that were entirely different from those of Chinese people. Did they think all our hopes were stupid?

my room, and to rub his scent off me.

Fear, I think, is the worst element of religions of all kinds. It is used to justify more fear, as well as hatred, lack of compassion, intolerance, and war.

Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.

Those are the five writing tips: Avoid clichés, avoid generalisations, find your own voice, show compassion, and ask the important questions.

And below the heimongmong, all along the ground, were weeds already spilling out over the edges, running wild in every direction.

For books I want to keep reading, it's definitely the voice. It must be a voice I've never heard before, and it must have its own particular intelligence. By 'voice,' I don't mean vernacular. It has to have its own particular history and world that it inhabits.