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Amy Tan

Amy Tan Quotes

Film writer

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Famous Amy Tan Quotes

“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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“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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