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Amy Tan

Amy Tan Quotes

Film writer

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Famous Amy Tan Quotes

“I think Kwan intended to show me the world is not a place but the vastness of the sou. And the soul is nothing more than love, limitless, endless, all that moves us toward knowing what is true....If people we love die, then they are lost only to our ordinary senses. If we remember, we can find them anytime with our hundred secret senses.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldSoulShowsRememberMovingDiesLostSecretKnowingOrdinaryHundredSensesEndlessShow MeLimitlessVastness
Author:Amy Tan
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“Each person is made of five different elements, she told me. Too much fire and you had a bad temper. That was like my father, whom my mother always critized for his cigarette habit and who always shouted back that she should feel guilty that he didn't let my mother speak her mind. Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other people's ideas, unable to stand on your own. This was like my Auntie An-mei. Too much water and you flowed in too many different directions. like myself.”

PeopleFeelsShouldMindLittlesPersonsMadeIdeasDifferentMotherFatherSpeakWaterFireFiveToo MuchHabitElementsWoodsGuiltyTemperCigaretteBentDifferent DirectionsBad TemperAuntie
Author:Amy Tan
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“I had always assumed we had an unspoken understanding about these things: that she didn't really mean I was a failure, and I really meant I would try to respect her opinions more. But listening to Auntie Lin tonight reminds me once agian: My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other's meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more. No doubt she told Auntie Lin I was going back to school to get a doctorate.”

TryingMeanSaidSchoolMotherUnderstandingOpinionDoubtHeardListeningUnderstoodNo DoubtTonightReally MeanUnspokenDoctoratesAuntieGoing Back To SchoolRespect Her
Author:Amy Tan
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“And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. They see that joy and luck do not mean the same to their daughters, that to these closed American-born minds "joy luck" is not a word, it does not exist. They see daughters who will bear grandchildren born without any connecting hope passed from generation to generation.”

ThinkingMindMeanDoeAmericaJoyMotherGrowsFearBornGenerationsStupidBearsDaughterLuckIgnorantChineseFrightenedGrandchildrenConnectingImpatient
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“How I saw in her my own true nature. What was beneath my skin. Inside my bones... Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain. This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is shou so deep it is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh.”

WaySometimesPainRememberYoungMotherMy OwnForgetSawsHonorDaughterSkinsBonesFleshScarTrue Nature
Author:Amy Tan
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“For all these years I kept my mouth closed so selfish desires would not fall out. And because I remained quiet for so long now my daughter does not hear me... All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. And because I moved so secretly now my daughter does not see me... We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing; unheard and not hearing, unknown by others.”

YearsLongDoeRunningDesireFallLostSeeingQuietMouthsDaughterShadowMovedHearingSelfishMy DaughterUnseenTrue NatureUnheardCatch MeSelfish Desire
Author:Amy Tan
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“But now that I am old, moving every year closer to the end of my life, I also feel closer to the beginning. And I remember everything that happened that day becasue it has happened many times in my life. The same innocence, trust, and restlessness; the wonder, fear, and lonliness. How I lost myself. I remember all these things. And tonight, on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, I also remember what I asked the Moon Lady so long ago. I wished to be found.”

FeelsYearsLongEndsRememberMovingFoundLostWonderHappenedMoonInnocenceTonightLong AgoRestlessnessLonlinessRemembers EverythingLost Myself
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“Even if I had expected it, even if I had known what I was going to do with my life, it would have knocked the wind out of me. When something that violent hits you, you can't help but lose your balance and fall. And after you pick yourself up, you realize you can't trust anybody to save you- not your husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and falling all over again?”

IfsHelpingMotherFallRealizingLosesKnownWindBalanceHusbandPicksExpectedViolentYour HusbandPick Yourself Up
Author:Amy Tan
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“I saw what I had been fighting for: It was for me, a scared child, who had run away a long time ago to what I had imagined was a safer place. And hiding in this place, behind my invisible barriers, I knew what lay on the other side: Her side attacks. Her secret weapons. Her uncanny ability to find my weakest spots. But in the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers I could finally see what was finally there: an old woman, a wok for her armor, a knitting needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.”

ChildrenLittlesLongRunningFightingSidesAbilitySecretBehindsSawsWeaponsLong TimeDaughterLaysScaredInvisibleSpotsInstantBarriersHidingInvitesRunning AwayLong Time AgoNeedlesArmorOld WomanKnittingUncannyKnitting Needles
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“So this is what I will do. I will gather together my past and look. I will see a thing that has already happened. the pain that cut my spirit loose. I will hold that pain in my hand until it becomes hard and shiny, more clear. And then my fierceness can come back, my golden side, my black side. I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter's tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. But I will win and giver her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter.”

WayLooksTwoHardUseHandsPainTogetherPastSpiritMotherFightingWinningSidesBlackClearCuttingHappenedDaughterToughSkinsGoldenMy DaughterTigersPenetrateGiverMy PastMother LoveFiercenessI Will WinTough Skin
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“My sisters and I stand, arms around each other, laughind and wiping the tears from each others eyes. The flash of the Polaroid goes off and my family hands me the snapshot. My sisters and I watch quietly together, eager to see what develops. Ghe grey-greensurface changes to the bright colors of our three images, sharpening and deepening all at once. And although we don't speak, I know we all see it: Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in suprise to see, her long-cherished wish.”

KnowsLooksLongHandsEyeTogetherMotherThreeSpeakWishWatchesTearsColorArmsMouthsMy FamilyMy SisterFlashGreySnapshotsSharpeningPolaroidsBright Colors
Author:Amy Tan
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“A girl is like a young tree, she said. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind. And then you will be like a weed, growing wild in any direction, running along the ground until someone pulls you out and throws you away.”

PeopleIfsWayFirstsSaidRunningYoungMotherFallGirlNextStrongGrowsGrowingTreeWindStandingWeakTallWeedCrookedStrong WindsJoy Luck Club
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“She would be quiet at first. Then she would say a word about something small, something she had noticed, and then another word, and another, each one flung out like a little piece of sand, one from this direction, another form behind, more and more, until his looks, his character, his soul would have eroded away . . . I was afraid that some unseen speck of truth would fly into my eye, blur what I was seeing and transform him from the divine man I thought he was into someone quite mundane, mortally wounded with tiresome habits and irritating imperfections.”

MenFirstsLooksLittlesSoulCharacterWould BeEyeFormBehindsPiecesSeeingDivineHabitQuietSandImperfectionWoundedUnseenMundaneBlurIrritatingSpecksTiresome
Author:Amy Tan
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“I learned to make things not matter, to put a seal on my hopes and place them on a high shelf, out of reach. And by telling myself that there was nothing inside those hopes anyway, I avoided the wounds of deep disappointment. The pain was no worse than the quick sting of a booster shot. And yet thinking about this makes me ache again. How is it that as a child I knew I should have been loved more? Is everyone born with a bottomless emotional resevoir?”

ThinkingShouldChildrenHas BeensMatterPainBornEmotionalShotsShould HaveDisappointmentWoundsShelvesAcheAvoidedShould Have BeenSealsDeep Disappointment
Book:The Hundred Secret Senses: A Novel
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“And for all those years, we never talked about the disaster at the recital or my terrible accusations afterward at the piano bench. All that remained unchecked, like a betrayal that was now unbreakable. So I never found a way to ask her why she had hoped something so large that failure was inevitable. And even worse, I never asked her what frightened me the most: Why had she given up hope?”

WayYearsAsksFoundGivenTerribleBetrayalDisasterInevitablePianoFrightenedGiven UpBenchesAccusationUnbreakableRecitals
Author:Amy Tan
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“That is the saddest part when you lose someone you love - that person keeps changing. And later you wonder, Is this the same person I lost? Maybe you lost more maybe less, then thousand different things that come from your memory or imagination - and you do not know which is which, which was true, which is false.”

KnowsPersonsDifferentLostLosesImaginationMemoriesWonderThousandDifferent ThingsSaddestSomeone You Love
Book:The Kitchen God's Wife
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