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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?

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
Chinese
Circumstances
American
Character
Best
Wanted
Children
Things
Combination

More quotes by Amy Tan

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I think Kwan intended to show me the world is not a place but the vastness of the sou. And the soul is nothing more than love, limitless, endless, all that moves us toward knowing what is true....If people we love die, then they are lost only to our ordinary senses. If we remember, we can find them anytime with our hundred secret senses.
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You can never be an artist if your work comes without effort. That is the problem with modernink from a bottle. You do not have to think. You simply write what is swimming on the top of your brain. And the top is nothing but pond scum, dead leaves, and mosquito spawn.
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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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I won't be what I'm not. -Jing-mei
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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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People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.
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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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Shanghainese people are good negotiators, they're very persistent, and you grow up in an atmosphere like that - very competitive. That becomes part of your personality, Shanghai personality becomes part of yours.
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On the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother's case, this would be the first day of the lunar new year. And because it is the new year, all debts must be paid, or disaster and misfortune will follow.
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I hated the tests the raised hopes and failed expectations.
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I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength...strongest wind cannot be seen.
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I don't steer clear of genres. I simply haven't steered myself toward some of them.
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I love my daughter. She and I have shared my body. There is a part of her mind that is a part of mine. But when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since.
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Whenever my mother talks to me, she begins the conversation as if we were already in the middle of an argument.
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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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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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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.
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What is a secret wish? It is what you want but cannot ask.
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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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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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