When we Chinese girls listened to the adults talk-story, we learned that we failed if we grew up to be but wives or slaves. We could be heroines, swordswomen. Even if she had to rage across all China, a swordswoman… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
No husband of mine will say, "I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is." Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure. — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
“What are you going to do for a living? Yea, you're going to have to work because you can't be a housewife. Somebody has to marry you before you can be a housewife. And you, you are a plant. Do you know that? That's all you are if you don't talk. If you don't talk, you can't have a personality.… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share
The way I'm going now is to focus on peace, to create peace. As Sister Corita said, "I don't go to anti-war rallies. I… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very idea of… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
We're all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we're alive together during the same moment. — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
“The villagers were speeding up the circling of events because she was too shortsighted to see that her infidelity had already harmed the village, the waves of consequences would return unpredictably, sometimes in disguise, as now, to hurt her. This roundness had to be made coin-sized so that she would see is circumference: punish her at the birth of her… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share
When I'm teaching, I tell my students: It's all process. Don't even think of product. — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
I'm so proud that my offspring became a musician. I'm full of awe that we are able to have a whole family live the… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
Chinese Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty,… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
“Upon Good Earth, lay the body down, open the mouth wide, let song rush through.” — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world--that I am able… — Maxine Hong Kingston Copy Share Image
