Maxine Hong Kingston

“What are you going to do for a living? Yea, you're going to have to work because you can't be a housewife.…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

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…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

The images of peace are ephemeral. The language of peace is subtle. The reasons for peace, the definitions of peace, the very…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

Gods you avoid won't hurt you.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

We're all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we're alive together during the same moment.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

“The villagers were speeding up the circling of events because she was too shortsighted to see that her infidelity had already harmed…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

When I'm teaching, I tell my students: It's all process. Don't even think of product.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

I'm so proud that my offspring became a musician. I'm full of awe that we are able to have a whole family…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

Chinese Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood,…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

“Upon Good Earth, lay the body down, open the mouth wide, let song rush through.”

— Maxine Hong Kingston

To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world--that I…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

“To write out the precepts again, we contend with them, and keep them; we build our humanity, and keep our humanity alive...…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

And I had to get out of hating range.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you.'

— Maxine Hong Kingston

People who can comfort the dead can also chase after them to hurt them further-a reverse ancestor worship.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

I learned to shoot more accurately because my teachers held the targets.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

I'd like to go to New Society Village someday and find out exactly how far I can walk before people stop talking…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

I may be ugly and clumsy, but one thing I'm not, I'm not retarded.

— Maxine Hong Kingston

A story can take you through a whole process of searching, seeking, confronting, through conflicts, and then to a resolution. As the…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

The swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar. May my people understand the resemblance soon so that I can return to them.…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

“You must not tell anyone, what I am about to tell you.”

— Maxine Hong Kingston

Attraction eludes control so stubbornly that whole societies designed to organize relationships among people cannot keep order, not even when they bind…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

Ocean people are very different from land people. The ocean never stops saying and asking into ears, which don't sleep like eyes.

— Maxine Hong Kingston