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The forbidden things were a great influence on my life. I was forbidden from reading A Catcher in the Rye.

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
Life
Catcher
Catchers
Forbidden
Influence
Reading
Great
Things

More quotes by Amy Tan

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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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Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.
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He asked if he could recite a poem he had written that morning: 'You speak,' he said, 'the language of shooting stars, more surprising than sunrise, more brilliant than the sun, as brief as sunset. I want to follow its trail to eternity.
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Now I was a tiger that neither pounced nor lay waiting between the trees. I became an unseen spirit.
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I've always been a magnet for guilt.
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You can have pride in what you do each day, but not arrogance in what you were born with.
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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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We are the kind of people who obsess over one word... but we have only one shot to get it right in concert. It was hard the first time I practiced with them. I was so nervous that my vocal chords were paralyzed for about a half-hour.
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You don't care what people think. You don't see your beloved's faults, the slight stinginess, the bit of carelessness, the occasional streak of meanness. You don't mind that he is beneath you socially, educationally, financially, and morally--that's the worst, I think, deficient morals. (Saving Fish From Drowning)
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I always thought it mattered, to know what is the worst possible thing that can happen to you, to know how you can avoid it, to not be drawn by the magic of the unspeakable.
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On the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother's case, this would be the first day of the lunar new year. And because it is the new year, all debts must be paid, or disaster and misfortune will follow.
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A psychiatrist does not want you to wake up. He tells you to dream some more, to find the pond and pour more tears into it. And really, he's just another bird drinking from your misery.
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While it is good to speak well, it is better to speak the truth.
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I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?
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Fate changes when you change your clothes.
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Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.
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If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
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That was a wonderful period in my life. I mean, I didn't become an artist, but somebody let me do something I loved. What a luxury, to do something you love to do.
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God, life changes faster than you think.
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Why do you think you are missing something you never had?
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