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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.

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
Argument
Conversation
Already
Middle
Mother
Talks
Begins
Whenever

More quotes by Amy Tan

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And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.
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Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.
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Hope is the adrenalin of the soul.
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God, life changes faster than you think.
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I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control.
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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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I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?
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For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds.
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The muse appears at the point in my writing when I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the lanuage is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as thought the universe is my friend and is helping me write, its hand over mine.
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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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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?
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Words are more ardent if a man must struggle to find them.
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In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.
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What is a secret wish? It is what you want but cannot ask.
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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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The forbidden things were a great influence on my life. I was forbidden from reading A Catcher in the Rye.
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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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My mother would say it is literally ghost writers who come to me.
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Yet part of me also thinks the whole idea makes perfect sense. The three of us, leaving our differences behind, stepping on the plane together, sitting side by side, lifting off, moving West to reach the East.
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Memory feeds imagination.
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