Quote

I AM A PERSON WHO THINKS ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT WHEN I WRITE. I THINK ABOUT WHAT CAN'T BE KNOWN AND ONLY IMAGINED. I OFTEN SENSE A SPIRIT OR FORCE OR MEANING BEYOND MYSELF. I LEAVE IT OPEN AS TO WHAT THE SPIRIT IS, BUT I CONTINUE TO MAKE GUESSES.

Amy Tan

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Amy Tan
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: February 19
Essayist
Film Writer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Oakland
California
Amy Ruth Tan
Thinking
Sense
Meaning
Spirit
Beyond
Nature
Leave
Persons
Open
Person
Known
Guesses
Writing
Force
Imagined
Make
Often
Thinks
Think
Write
Continue

More quotes by Amy Tan

Image
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.'
Amy Tan
Image
If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever. -An-mei
Amy Tan
Image
I began to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid.
Amy Tan
Image
Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.
Amy Tan
Image
I felt like a rich vagabond who had passed through the world paving my way with gold fairy dust, then realizing too late that the path disintegrated as soon as I passed over it.
Amy Tan
Image
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.
Amy Tan
Image
In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.
Amy Tan
Image
People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.
Amy Tan
Image
Placing on writers the responsibility to represent a culture is an onerous burden.
Amy Tan
Image
Dementia was like a truth serum.
Amy Tan
Image
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.
Amy Tan
Image
I had on a beautiful red dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind. -Lindo
Amy Tan
Image
Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.
Amy Tan
Image
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.
Amy Tan
Image
I've always been a magnet for guilt.
Amy Tan
Image
To come so far, to lose so much and to find nothing. -Jing-mei
Amy Tan
Image
I have always known a thing before it happens.
Amy Tan
Image
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)
Amy Tan
Image
I learned to forgive myself, and that enabled me to forgive my mother as a person.
Amy Tan
Image
Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.
Amy Tan