Home > Work > Searching for Sylvie Lee
1 " I only had the morning to get my work done. I had to be really efficient. I'd let the others take the easy questions in class and wait to answer the hardest ones. I'm Asian and a woman, which shouldn't matter but did anyway. It was clear sometimes that no matter how hard I worked, I didn't qualify to be a member of the in club. "
― Jean Kwok , Searching for Sylvie Lee
2 " In love and life, we never know when we are telling ourselves stories. We are the ultimate unreliable narrators. "
3 " But I learned that if you do not speak, no one will ever hear you. "
4 " if you do not speak, no one will ever hear you. "
5 " I was beginning to realize that I had kept myself so busy to avoid examining my life, and now that I had the chance, I did not like it at all. "
6 " Now, many years later, I was note sure if we had truly loved each other or merely the versions of ourselves we had seen reflected in the other's eyes-as if we had acted out a play together, both of us audience and player alike. "
7 " So quickly did we shed the wisdom and kindness of accumulated years, how easily we reverted to our former selves in the company of those who have known us before. "
8 " I am in love with imperfection. Some of my mistakes wind up being the most interesting work I have ever done. "
9 " Any time I had a teacher in elementary or high school who’d taught Sylvie, they’d say, “Ah, you’re Sylvie Lee’s little sister,” rife with anticipation. I would then watch as their high hopes turned to bewilderment at my stuttering slowness. This was followed by their disappointment and, finally, their indifference. "
10 " They say that once you see the ocean, no other water can compare. My love story started so many years ago. Pa and I began our marriage with the strength of a tiger’s head but it slowly transformed into the weak tail of the snake. How could it be that I placed the green hat upon his head? "
11 " Once you loved him, everything in your life fell into a before and after. Nothing would ever be the same. "
12 " Ma told me that while nothing can replace that which is lost, emptiness creates room for new growth. "
13 " but it’s hard to celebrate with all your heart when your festivity isn’t reflected by the society around you—no films on television, no displays in department stores, no friends with gifts, and no propaganda about peace and love whatsoever. Sylvie and I always had to go to school on Chinese New Year. "
14 " It is strange because I am naturally afraid of water but I love it too.'...'...why are you scared of water?' ...'Because I can drown in two meters of it, idiot.'...'Why do you love it, then?''It feels like freedom "
15 " He who sits on his butt must also sit on his blisters. "
