Quote

My mother had a very difficult childhood, having seen her own mother kill herself. So she didnt always know how to be the nurturing mother that we all expect we should have.

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
Nurturing
Expect
Kill
Childhood
Seen
Difficult
Mother
Always

More quotes by 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
how can the world in all its chaos come up with so many coincidences, so many similarities and exact opposites?
Amy Tan
Image
I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese.
Amy Tan
Image
Your life is what you see in front of you. -An-mei
Amy Tan
Image
I've always been a magnet for guilt.
Amy Tan
Image
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.
Amy Tan
Image
You see what power is holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them.
Amy Tan
Image
Chaos is the penance for leisure.
Amy Tan
Image
You can't have intentions without consequences. The question is, who pays for the consequences? Saving fish from drowning. Same thing. Who’s saved? Who’s not?
Amy Tan
Image
We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable. -Suyuan
Amy Tan
Image
Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind -- poom! -- North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen.
Amy Tan
Image
Mothers have the huge influence, and I feel like they're always teaching us from the day we're born what to be afraid of, what to be cautious of, what we should like and what we should look like. Then we spend half of our life trying to be not like them, and then we reach another part of our lives where we see these things we can't get rid of.
Amy Tan
Image
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.
Amy Tan
Image
Over time, passion wanes, differences don't.
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
I feel I've always been writing about self-identity. How do we become who we are? So I'm just writing from experience what's concerned me.
Amy Tan
Image
Words are more ardent if a man must struggle to find them.
Amy Tan
Image
To come so far, to lose so much and to find nothing. -Jing-mei
Amy Tan
Image
I hated the tests the raised hopes and failed expectations.
Amy Tan
Image
And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. -Rose
Amy Tan