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For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.

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
Unlike
Mother
Anything
Wanted
Believe

More quotes by Amy Tan

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I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.
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how can the world in all its chaos come up with so many coincidences, so many similarities and exact opposites?
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My mother didn't teach me lessons about being Chinese as strongly as she did the notion of who I was as a female.
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You can get sucked into the idea that, 'Gosh, this is impressive. Maybe I should do this. It will look good.' Or 'I'll write like this because it will impress that critic.'
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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 started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away.
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When you lose your face..., it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you can get it back is to fall in after it.
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We all become different readers in how we respond to books, why we need them, what we take from them. We become different in the questions that arise as we read, in the answers that we find, in the degree of satisfaction or unease we feel with those answers...In the hands of a different reader, the same story can be a different story.
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And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.
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I once sacrificed my life to keep my parents' promiise. This means nothing to you, because to you promises mean nothing... But later, she will forget her promise. She will forget she had a grandmother.
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Among writers, if you don't have a therapist, it's like saying you don't keep a journal or use the thesaurus. It's a natural accompaniment.
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Those who don't heed the warnings don't live to admit they were stupid not to do so.
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Hardships can harden even the best person.
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If I now recognize evil in other people, is it not because I have become evil too?
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I like to go somewhere where I learn something I didn't know before, like the Dry Tortugas between Florida and Cuba.
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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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You should think about your character. Know where you are changing, how you will be changed, what cannot be changed back again.
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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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With hope, a mind is always free.
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My mother had a look on her face that I'll never forget. It was one of complete despair and horror, for losing Bing, for being so foolish as to think she could use faith to change fate.
Amy Tan