Auntie Yang is not hard of hearing. She is hard of listening.

— Amy Tan

Believe me, daughter, there is nothing worse than having your own family member out for revenge.

— Amy Tan

But you can't stay in the dark for so long. Something inside of you starts to fade, and you become like a starving person, crazy-hungry for light.

— Amy Tan

Can I tell my daughter that I loved her father? This was the man who rubbed my feet at night. He praised the food that I cooked. He cried honestly when I brought out trinkets I had saved for the right day, the day he gave me my daughter, a tiger girl. How could I not love this man? But it was a love of a ghost. Arms that encircled but did not touch. A bowl full of rice but without my appetite to eat it. No hunger. No full

— Amy Tan

Dementia was like a truth serum.

— Amy Tan

Even if I could live forever,” she said to the baby, “I still don’t know which way I would teach you. I was once so free and innocent. I, too, laughed for no reason."“But later I threw away my foolish innocence to protect myself. And then I taught my daughter, your mother, to shed her innocence so she would not be hurt as well.

— Amy Tan

Even when I worked in that world, I still wanted love so strong that the man would have no interest in another woman. Maybe you will always be incapable of giving that kind of love. You tell me I want too much. And maybe I do. But like you and your imagination, I can't help but be that way.

— Amy Tan

Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming - well, that's like saying you can never change your fate. Isn't that true?

— Amy Tan

Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.

— Amy Tan

For books, I want to keep reading, it's definitely the voice. It must be a voice I've never heard before, and it must have its own particular intelligence. By 'voice,' I don't mean vernacular. It has to have its own particular history and world that it inhabits.

— Amy Tan