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Amy Tan

Amy Tan Quotes

Film writer

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Famous Amy Tan Quotes

“She [my mother] said that if I listened to her, later I would know what she knew: where true words came from, always from up high, above everything else. And if I didn't listen to her, she said my ear would bend too easily to other people, all saying words that had no lasting meaning, because they came from the bottom of their hearts, where their own desires lived, a place where I could not belong.”

PeopleIfsKnowsHeartSaidMotherDesireListeningEarsBottomLastingTrue Words
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“Sometimes you change to survive, and some things you don't give up, or you're too prideful, and then you think well, what's pride? Is it a good thing? Maybe it's a bad thing. That's what I look at in my life. It's always a question in my life I look at, and I never find the answer, because if I did, probably I wouldn't have books to write.”

IfsThinkingGivingWritingWellsLooksBookSometimesAnswersPrideGiving UpGood ThingsBad ThingsDon't Give Up
Author:Amy Tan
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“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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“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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“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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“I take a few quick sips. "This is really good." And I mean it. I have never tasted tea like this. It is smooth, pungent, and instantly addicting. "This is from Grand Auntie," my mother explains. "She told me 'If I buy the cheap tea, then I am saying that my whole life has not been worth something better.' A few years ago she bought it for herself. One hundred dollars a pound." "You're kidding." I take another sip. It tastes even better.”

IfsYearsMeanWholeMotherTasteHundredYears AgoDollarsWhole LifeTeaPoundsSmoothSomething BetterAuntie
Book:The Kitchen God's Wife
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“If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.”

IfsLifeInspirationalMotivationChangeAttitudeFateInspirational AttitudeCaringCan't ChangeMy AttitudeExamMental AttitudeFate DestinyBest AttitudeNegative AttitudeAttitude Is EverythingCaregiversFate And DestinyChange Your AttitudeCaregivingChanging AttitudeMotivational AttitudeLife FateCan't Change PeopleFunny Exam
Book:The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life
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“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”

IfsWorldWayMadeMotherLanguageNaturalClearSawsPureShapesPercentMy FriendsDirectTongueObservationChineseVividImageryMother TonguePerfectly Natural
Author:Amy Tan
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“Clichés are static, the emotion behind them long spent. If you are tempted to use them, here is a saying of my mother’s: Fang pi bu-cho, cho pi bu-fang. Basically that translates to: "Loud farts don’t stink, and the really smelly ones don’t make a sound." In other words: When you’re full of beans, you just blow a lot of hot air. If you want to have a real impact, be deadly but silent. Oh, also recognize the difference between a bad cliché and a good quotation. My mother’s saying is a good quotation. You should use it often.”

IfsWantShouldLongRealUseMotherSoundDifferencesEmotionBehindsAirHotImpactSilentBlowLoudTranslateQuotationsTemptedBeansStaticFangsStinkFartSmellyHot Air
Author:Amy Tan
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