Amy Tan

Your only shame is to have shame.

— Amy Tan

I did not lose myself all at once.

— Amy Tan

“back as a mud-smashing”

— Amy Tan

“Suffer more now, suffer less later.”

— Amy Tan

I've always been a magnet for guilt.

— Amy Tan

With hope, a mind is always free.

— Amy Tan

Libraries are the pride of the city.

— Amy Tan

I won't be what I'm not. -Jing-mei

— Amy Tan

“To keep false hopes is to prolong misery.”

— Amy Tan

“Why does love end so quickly and hatred last without end?”

— Amy Tan

“May the dog-mother rut with a dead devil!”

— Amy Tan

God, life changes faster than you think.

— Amy Tan

To come so far, to lose so much and to find nothing. -Jing-mei

— Amy Tan

“When you touch a man’s nostalgia, he is yours.”

— Amy Tan

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

— Amy Tan

Why do you think you are missing something you never had?

— Amy Tan

“Some of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.”

— Amy Tan

Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.

— Amy Tan

For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.

— Amy Tan

I was intelligent enough to make up my own mind. I not only had freedom of choice, I had freedom of expression.

— Amy Tan

We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already…

— Amy Tan

Now they seemed to be in a contest over who could irritate her more, and she sometimes had to remind herself that…

— Amy Tan

“Those were the reasons we both knew how deep love was, the shared pain that would outlast any pain we caused each…

— Amy Tan

And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love,…

— Amy Tan

I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction…

— Amy Tan

Her education only made her unhappy thinking about it - that no matter how much she changed her life, she could not…

— Amy Tan

I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents' promiise. This means nothing to you, because to you promises mean nothing... But…

— Amy Tan

How do I create something out of nothing? And how do I create my own life? I think it is by questioning,…

— Amy Tan

“In truth, this was a bad thing that Yan Chang had done, telling me my mother’s story. Secrets are kept from children,…

— Amy Tan

You can get sucked into the idea that, 'Gosh, this is impressive. Maybe I should do this. It will look good.' Or…

— Amy Tan

My favorite anything is always relative to the context of present time, place and mood. When I finish a book and want…

— Amy Tan

People talk about this 'bucket list': 'I need to go to this country, I need to skydive.' Whereas I need to think…

— Amy Tan

A girl is like a young tree, she said. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you.…

— Amy Tan

“And now at the airport, after shaking hands with everybody, waving good-bye, I think about all the different ways we leave people…

— Amy Tan

I had always assumed we had an unspoken understanding about these things: that she didn't really mean I was a failure, and…

— Amy Tan

My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances. We lived in…

— Amy Tan

You don't care what people think. You don't see your beloved's faults, the slight stinginess, the bit of carelessness, the occasional streak…

— Amy Tan

“Was there ever a great true love? Anyone who became the object of my obsession and not simply my affections?...I could not…

— Amy Tan

“At first, I thought it was because I was raised with all this Chinese humility... Or maybe it was because when you're…

— Amy Tan

Love is tricky. It is never mundane or daily. You can never get used to it. You have to walk with it,…

— Amy Tan