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In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

Amy Tan

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Amy Tan
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: February 19
Essayist
Film Writer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Oakland
California
Amy Ruth Tan
Nobody
Gives
Says
Somebody
Keep
Else
America
Giving
Circumstances

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To come so far, to lose so much and to find nothing. -Jing-mei
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I was punched breathless by the strongest emotions I have ever felt and they are now stored in my intuition as a writer.
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No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.
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Now they seemed to be in a contest over who could irritate her more, and she sometimes had to remind herself that teenagers had souls
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I let one thing result from another. Of course, all of it could have been just loosely connected coincidences. And whether that's true or not, I know the intention was there. Becasue when I want something to happen-or not happen- I begin to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid.
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Your only shame is to have shame.
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Now you see,' said the turtle, drifting back into the pond, 'why it is useless to cry. Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that is why you must learn to swallow your own tears.
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If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
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And now I have to stop. Because every time I remember this, I have to cry a little by myself. I don't know why something that made me so happy then feels so sad now. Maybe that is the way it is with the best memories.
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I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese.
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I won't be what I'm not. -Jing-mei
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We are living in a world where everything is false. The society is like bright paint applied on top of rotten wood.
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I was intelligent enough to make up my own mind. I not only had freedom of choice, I had freedom of expression.
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I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable.
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Shanghainese people are good negotiators, they're very persistent, and you grow up in an atmosphere like that - very competitive. That becomes part of your personality, Shanghai personality becomes part of yours.
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I hid my deepest feelings so well I forgot where I placed them.
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And below the heimongmong, all along the ground, were weeds already spilling out over the edges, running wild in every direction.
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When my daughter looks at me, she sees a small old lady. That is because she sees only with her outside eyes. She has no chuming, no inside knowing of things. If she had chuming she would see a tiger lady. And she would have careful fear.
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Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.
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We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable. -Suyuan
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