I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one in the same.
For my entire life I longed for love. I knew it was not right for me – as a girl and later as a woman – to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in my life.
May and I are sisters. We’ll always fight, but we’ll always make up as well. That’s what sisters do: we argue, we point out each other’s frailties, mistakes, and bad judgment, we flash the insecurities we’ve had since childhood, and then we come back together. Until the next time.
He was in my hair, my eyes, my fingers, my heart. I day-dreamed about what he was doing, thinking, seeing, smelling, feeling. I could not eat for thoughts of him.
The three most important powers are Heaven, Earth and Man. The three luminaries are the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Opportunities given by Heaven are not equal to the advantages afforded by Earth, while the advantages of Earth do not match the blessings that come from harmony among men.
Stories tell us how we should live.
But then this is how it is for women everywhere. You experience one lapse in conscience, in how low you think you’ll go, in what you’ll accept, and pretty soon you’re at the bottom.
Blessings and worry, happiness and fear – this is a mother’s love.
Hyacinth bean and papayas, long vines, deep roots. Palm trees outside the garden walls, with deep roots, stand a thousand years.
When fortune comes, do not enjoy all of it; when advantage comes, do not take all of it.
As obident as dogs and as stupid as water buffalo.
You can always count on people to crowded your party when you’re in glory but you should never dream of people sending you charcoal in the cold.
Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.
People come in and out of our lives, and the true test of friendship is whether you can pick back up right where you left off the last time you saw each other.
In our country we call this type of mother love teng ai. My son has told me that in men’s writing it is composed of two characters. The first means pain; the second means love. That is a mother’s love.
The greatest calling of all is to have a literary life.
I’ve come to believe that part of lovesickness comes from this conflict between control and desire. In love we have no control. Our hearts and minds are tormented, teased, enticed and delighted by the overwhelming strength of emotions that make us try to forget the real world.
I wonder if there was anything I would have done differently. I hope I would have done everything differently, except I know everything would have turned out the same. That’s the meaning of fate.
My hardcover sales are 17% down in books but up 400% in electronics.
Let those who believe, believe. Let those who doubt, doubt.