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I have loved works of fiction precisely for their illusions, for the author's sleight-of-hand in showing me the magic, what appeared in the right hand but not in the left.

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
Hands
Author
Right
Illusion
Works
Magic
Sleight
Fiction
Illusions
Loved
Appeared
Hand
Precisely
Left
Showing

More quotes by Amy Tan

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We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming - well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.
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It means we're looking one way, while following another. We're for one side and also the other. We mean what we say, but our intentions are different.
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All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. -Ying Ying
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Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power.
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Language is the tool of my trade -and I use them all - all the Englishes I grew up with
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Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.
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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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Then she told me why a tiger is gold and black. It has two ways. The gold side leaps with its fierce heart. The black side stands still with cunning, hiding its gold between the trees, seeing and not being seen, waiting patiently for things to come. I did not learn to use my black side until after the bad man left me.
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Chaos is the penance for leisure.
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While it is good to speak well, it is better to speak the truth.
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Libraries are the pride of the city.
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Too many good things all seem the same after a while.
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You must think for yourself, what you must do. If someone tells you, then you are not trying. -An-mei
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There are a lot of people who think that's what's needed to be successful is always being right, always being careful, always picking the right path.
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I have survivor skills. Some of that is superficial - what I present to people outwardly - but what makes people resilient is the ability to find humour and irony in situations that would otherwise overpower you.
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The muse appears at the point in my writing when I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the lanuage is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as thought the universe is my friend and is helping me write, its hand over mine.
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The forbidden things were a great influence on my life. I was forbidden from reading A Catcher in the Rye.
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So sad! This is the saddest part when you lose someone you love- that person keeps changing. And later you wonder, Is this the same person I lost?
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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 discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control.
Amy Tan