I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn't realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.

Amy Tan

The writer is by nature a dreamer - a conscious dreamer.

How can the dead be truly dead when they still live in the souls of those who are left behind?

To know who you are, you have to have a place to come from.

Falling in love is the easiest thing in the world. It's standing in love that matters.

I was punched breathless by the strongest emotions I have ever felt and they are now stored in my intuition as a writer.

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.

It's both rebellion and conformity that attack you with success.

There's no hope. There's no reason to keep trying. Because you must. This is not hope. Not reason. This is your fate. This is your life, what you must do.

You can have pride in what you do each day, but not arrogance in what you were born with.

Ying-ying, you have tiger eyes. They gather fire in the day. At night they shine golden.

In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

Words are more ardent if a man must struggle to find them.

You see what power is holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them.

It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.

If you are greedy, what is inside you is what makes you always hungry.

From what I have observed, when the anesthesia of love wears off, there is always the pain of consequences. You don't have to be stupid to marry the wrong man.