Quote

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.

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
Different
Following
Way
Side
Sides
Looking
Means
Another
Also
Intentions
Mean
Intention

More quotes by Amy Tan

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My parents had very high expectations. They expected me to get straight A's from the time I was in kindergarten.
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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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People think it's a terrible tragedy when somebody has Alzheimer's. But in my mother's case, it's different. My mother has been unhappy all her life. For the first time in her life, she's happy.
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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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Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.
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That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.
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But I don't have anything left inside of me to figure out where I fit in or what I want. If I want anything, it's to know what's possible to want.
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Libraries are the pride of the city.
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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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Don't think too much. That makes you believe you have more choices than you do. Then you mind becomes confused.
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My mother said I was a clingy kid until I was about four. I also remember that from the age of eight she and I fought almost every day.
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That 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? Maybe you lost more maybe less, then thousand different things that come from your memory or imagination - and you do not know which is which, which was true, which is false.
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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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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 can never remember things I didn't understand in the first place.
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Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.
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And when I say that is certainly true, that our marriage is over. I know what else she will say: Then you must save it. And even though I know it's hopeless- there's absolutely nothing left to save-I'm afraid if I tell her that, she'll still persuade me to try.
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No one in my family was a reader of literary fiction. So, I didn't have encouragement, but I didn't have discouragement, because I don't think anybody knew what that meant.
Amy Tan
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I'd like to be more forgiving. There are times when I've had a hard time forgiving people who have betrayed me.
Amy Tan
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I am fascinated by language in daily life: the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.
Amy Tan