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Amy Tan

Amy Tan Quotes

Film writer

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Famous Amy Tan Quotes

“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.”

ThinkingKnowsWantChildrenHelpingMotherThreeCoursesNamesPoorFamilyFiveBrotherCircumstancesMysteriousChineseMealsRestaurantsShopsBowlsSoupSan FranciscoRise AboveAlleysOlder BrotherMysterious ThingsChinatownBack Alleys
Book:The Joy Luck Club
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“I was raised the Chinese way: I was taught to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, to eat my own bitterness. And even though I taught my daughter the opposite, still she came out the same way! Maybe it is because she was born to me and she was born a girl. And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.”

PeopleWayStillsMotherDesireGirlBornMy OwnStepsGenerationsTaughtDaughterOppositesMiseryRaisedChineseMy DaughterBitternessUp And DownStairs
Author:Amy Tan
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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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