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I think I've always been somebody, since the deaths of my father and brother, who was afraid to hope. So, I was more prepared for failure and for rejection than for success.

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
Thinking
Brother
Somebody
Since
Success
Deaths
Hope
Rejection
Father
Prepared
Always
Failure
Think
Afraid

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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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My parents told me I would become a doctor and then in my spare time I would become a concert pianist. So, both my day job and my spare time were sort of taken care of.
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That is the way it is with a wound. The wound begins to close in on itself, to protect what is hurting so much. And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath, what started the pain.
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Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterward.
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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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God, life changes faster than you think.
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I would find myself laughing and wondering where these ideas came from. You can call it imagination, I suppose. But I was grateful for wherever they came from.
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But I will win and give her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter. -Ying Ying
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Sure I loved him - too much. And he loved me, only not enough. I just want someone who thinks I'm number one in his life. I'm not willing to accept emotional scraps anymore.
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Why do you think you are missing something you never had?
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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.
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I read a book a day when I was a kid. My family was not literary we did not have any books in the house.
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I didn't fear failure. I expected failure.
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And I remember wondering why it was that eating something good could make me feel so terrible, while vomiting something terrible could make me feel so good.
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You see what power is holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them.
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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.
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I thought this man had long ago drained everything from my heart. But now something strong and bitter flowed and made me feel another emptiness in a place I didn't know was there. I cursed this man aloud so he could hear. You had dog eyes. You jumped and followed whoever called you. Now you chase your own tail.
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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.
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Chaos is the penance for leisure.
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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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