Memory feeds imagination. Amy Tan More Quotes by Amy Tan More Quotes From Amy Tan I always thought it mattered, to know what is the worst possible thing that can happen to you, to know how you can avoid it, to not be drawn by the magic of the unspeakable. Amy Tan know-howworstmagic Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain. Amy Tan joy-luck-clubpainflesh For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds. Amy Tan passionmenlying And below the heimongmong, all along the ground, were weeds already spilling out over the edges, running wild in every direction. Amy Tan joy-luck-clubweedrunning I have always known a thing before it happens. Amy Tan joy-luck-clubknownhappens It is because I had so much joy that I came to have so much hate. Amy Tan joy-luck-clubhatejoy And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood. Amy Tan joy-luck-clubchineseblood My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances. We lived in San Francisco's Chinatown. Like most of the other Chinese children who played in the back alleys of restaurants and curio shops, I didn't think we were poor. My bowl was always full, three five-course meals every day, beginning with a soup full of mysterious things I didn't want to know the names of. Amy Tan familybrothermother Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world Amy Tan chinesemotherworld I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable. Amy Tan miserablebookthinking External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself. Amy Tan uniqueresponsibilitypeople Now they seemed to be in a contest over who could irritate her more, and she sometimes had to remind herself that teenagers had souls Amy Tan teenagersoulsometimes I think I've always been somebody, since the deaths of my father and brother, who was afraid to hope. So, I was more prepared for failure and for rejection than for success. Amy Tan brothersuccessfather I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life. Amy Tan life-lessonwritingfiction Over time, passion wanes, differences don't. Amy Tan time-passespassiondifferences You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modernink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn. Amy Tan readingeducationwriting We are living in a world where everything is false. The society is like bright paint applied on top of rotten wood. Amy Tan rottenwoodsworld too much happiness always overflowed into tears of sorrow. Amy Tan too-muchtearssorrow I felt stuck in the bottom of a wishing well. I was desperate to shout what I wanted, but I didn’t know what that was. I knew only what it wasn’t. The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan Amy Tan amysecretwish My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes. She sees those who have died and now dwell in the world of Yin, ghosts who leave the mists just to visit her kitchen on Balboa Street in San Francisco. Amy Tan san-franciscoeyebelieve
