“It’s all so messed up. I think what it is, is that when I was young, my mother was her best version of herself. And here I am, now, a shitty grown-up, and messing it all up, and a disappointment. What imperfect carriers of love we are, and what imperfect givers. That the reasons we can care for one another can have nothing to do with the person cared for. That it has only to do with who we were around that person—what we felt about that person. Here’s the fear: she gave to us, and we took from her, until she disappeared.” LoveMotherDisappointment Book:Goodbye, Vitamin Source: Goodbye, Vitamin
“Why did parents perform all these un-repayable acts? Was it because they felt guilty for bringing us here in the first place?” FamilyDramaGuiltFamily RelationshipsGuilty Conscience Book:Real Americans Source: Real Americans
“Today we went over to your mother's friend's house for dinner. We'd asked you to be polite, so you said, "No more, please, it's horrible thank you.” ChildrenHumorFunny Book:Goodbye, Vitamin Source: Goodbye, Vitamin
“She wasn't normal and so I wasn't either. I resented that part the most.” NormalParentsParents And ChildrenParenting Children Book:Real Americans Source: Real Americans
“Once she had believed that connection meant sameness, consensus, harmony. Having everything in common. And now she understood that the opposite was true: that connection was more valuable--more remarkable--for the fact of differences. Friendship didn't require blunting the richness of yourself to find common ground. Sometimes it was that, but it was also appreciating another person, in all their particularity.” Fiction NovelAsian American Literature Book:Real Americans Source: Real Americans
“It had been our dream, Otto's and mine: to give our children the best possible futures. But it was a mistake, believing you could choose for someone else, no matter how well intentioned you might be. And what did we choose, really? We were told what to want: Propaganda was universal. Especially in this country, where the propaganda was that there was none--we were free. But were we? When we were made to value certain lives more than others; when we were made, relentlessly, to want more? What if I had seen through it? What if I had understood that I already had enough?” Fiction NovelAsian American Literature Book:Real Americans Source: Real Americans
“Love irrigated everything with new meaning.” Fiction NovelAsian American Literature Book:Real Americans Source: Real Americans