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141 " Being able to restrain my emotions isn’t a great victory—it’s the pitiful proof of lost love. "
― Amy Tan , The Hundred Secret Senses
142 " 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. "
― Amy Tan , The Joy Luck Club
143 " Yet part of me also thinks the whole idea makes perfect sense. The three of us, leaving our differences behind, stepping on the plane together, sitting side by side, lifting off, moving West to reach the East. "
144 " That is the problem with modern ink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn. But when you push an inkstick along an inkstone, you take the first step to cleansing your mind and your heart. You push and you ask yourself, What are my intentions? What is in my heart that matches my mind? I "
― Amy Tan , The Bonesetter's Daughter
145 " 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 give her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter. "
146 " A few times I invited Ba to visit me from the World of Yin. But other yin friends tell me he is stuck somewhere else, a foggy place where people believe their lies are true. "
147 " Suffer more now, suffer less later. "
― Amy Tan , The Valley of Amazement
148 " All night long I worried, not about myself but about Jimmy. I imagined him looking for me, running through the park, looking in the movie theatres. He was a good man, considerate and kind, but he was not strong. He had never been through any kind of bad hardship before. So I worried. "
― Amy Tan , The Kitchen God's Wife
149 " To keep false hopes is to prolong misery. "
150 " The life we receive is not always what we choose. "
151 " I thought about things, the pros and cons. But in the end I would be so confused, because I never believed there was ever any one right answer, yet there were many wrong ones. "
152 " I imagine a hundred Chinese Icaruses, molding wings out of earwax. You can't stop people from wishing. "
153 " My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes. "
154 " I, not anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel if by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere—on water and land. "
155 " Fate changes when you change your clothes. "
156 " Do you know what morals are Violet? They're other people's rules. Do you know what a conscience is? Freedom to use your own intelligence to determine what is right or wrong. You possess that freedom and no one can remove it from you "
157 " The only thing certain in times of great uncertainty is that people will behave with great strength or weakness, and with very little else in between. "
― Amy Tan , Saving Fish from Drowning
158 " Even though I did not understand her entire story, I understood her grief. "
159 " At first, I thought it was because I was raised with all this Chinese humility... Or maybe it was because when you're Chinese you're supposed to accept everything, flow with the Tao and not make waves. But my therapist said, Why do you blamd your culture, your ethnicity? And I remembered reading an article about baby boomers, how we expect the best and when we get it we worry that maybe we shoudl have expected more, because it's all diminishing returns after a certain age. "
160 " I tried to keep very still, but my heart felt like crickets scratching to get out of the cage. "
