And I had to get out of hating range. Maxine Hong Kingston More Quotes by Maxine Hong Kingston More Quotes From Maxine Hong Kingston You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you.' Maxine Hong Kingston mother said The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods. Maxine Hong Kingston sweat hard-work business The work of preservation demands that the feelings playing about in one's guts not be turned into action. Just watch their passing like cherry blossoms. Maxine Hong Kingston demand feelings watches Humans are basically good. That's why it takes so much training to march march march kill kill kill kill. Maxine Hong Kingston march training humans Daughters-in-law lived with their husbands' parents, not their own; a synonym for marriage in Chinese is "taking a daughter-in-law. Maxine Hong Kingston marriage daughter husband We seem to be always on cusps. Women come out of the burkah, the niqab, purdah, the closet, then go back in again. Of course, what we need do is to value the happy freedom of all beings. Maxine Hong Kingston purdah niqab needs Be careful what you say. It comes true. It comes true. I had to leave home in order to see the world logically, logic the new way of seeing. I learned to think that mysteries are for explanation. I enjoy the simplicity. Concrete pours out of my mouth to cover the forests with freeways and sidewalks. Give me plastics, periodical tables, TV dinners with vegetables no more complex than peas mixed with diced carrots. Shine floodlights into dark corners: no ghosts. Maxine Hong Kingston learning dark home I've been writing since I was 7, but before that, I was orally making stories. Maxine Hong Kingston stories writing I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes. Petals are bone marrow; pearls come from oysters. The dragon lives in the sky, ocean, marshes, and mountains; and the mountains are also its cranium. Its voice thunders and jingles like copper pans. It breathes fire and water; and sometimes the dragon is one, sometimes many. Maxine Hong Kingston dragons ocean fire I learned to shoot more accurately because my teachers held the targets. Maxine Hong Kingston target teacher To shut the door at the end of the workday, which does not spill over into evening. To throw away books after reading them so theydon't have to be dusted. To go through boxes on New Year's Eve and throw out half of what is inside. Sometimes for extravagance to pick a bunch of flowers for the one table. Other women besides me must have this daydream about a carefree life. Maxine Hong Kingston new-year reading work Reading Ngo Tu Lap's poems, terrible nostalgia wells up in me- nostalgia for a lost time and a far-gone country, nostalgia for people I've loved, and for creatures of forests and rivers. I feel gratitude too. War is over. Peace arrives with these beautiful poems. Maxine Hong Kingston gratitude beautiful country Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of prose. Now, I want the easiness of poetry. The brevity of the poem. Maxine Hong Kingston twelve want years Before we can leave our parents, they stuff our heads like the suitcases which they jam-pack with homemade underwear. Maxine Hong Kingston underwear parent jam I am confirmed in my belief that war is utter destructive violent chaos. There is no "art," no "order(s)," no "just war." No matter what the ideologies, wars are the same. Maxine Hong Kingston war order art 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 go to peace rallies." Maxine Hong Kingston focus war way When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That kind of thinking gets in the way. Maxine Hong Kingston mind book thinking What does old look like? Sometimes I am wrinkled, sometimes not. Maxine Hong Kingston doe sometimes looks You can't eat straight A's. Maxine Hong Kingston It seems that writing chose me. I feel that because I know history, and I know the history of so many cultures; I have lived a large life. Maxine Hong Kingston writing feels culture
