44 Amy Tan Quotes for You to Enjoy

Amy Tan

American Novelist

Born: Feb 19, 1952

Me Mother People Think Time You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

Our uniqueness makes us special, makes perception valuable - but it can also make us lonely. This loneliness is different from being 'alone': You can be lonely even surrounded by people. The feeling I'm talking about stems from the sense that we can never fully share the truth of who we are. I experienced this acutely at an early age. Amy Tan

Truth Alone Loneliness You Age People Valuable Lonely Perception Feeling Sense Our About Never Share Stems Also Make Talking Makes Surrounded Being Different Experienced Being Alone Us Special Who Fully Even Uniqueness Early Early Age

When you read about the lives of other people, people of different circumstances or similar circumstances, you are part of their lives for that moment. You inhabit their lives, and you feel what they're feeling, and that is compassion. If we see that reading does allow us that, we see how absolutely essential reading is. Amy Tan

You People Compassion Feeling Reading Other Circumstances See About Similar Absolutely Allow Part Feel Read Does How Essential Different Us Inhabit Moment Lives

I have survivor skills. Some of that is superficial - what I present to people outwardly - but what makes people resilient is the ability to find humour and irony in situations that would otherwise overpower you. Amy Tan

You People Otherwise Humour Would Find Ability Some Superficial Makes Survivor Irony Situations Skills Present Resilient

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses. Amy Tan

Kindness Desperation Universe Inspiration Arises Perhaps Knows Where Who Muses

You Better Down Think Find Given Could Better Person Because Real Person Goes Just Just Because Crash Really Popular Popularity

Mothers have this huge influence, and I feel like they're always teaching us from the day we're born what to be afraid of, what to be cautious of, what we should like, and what we should look like. Amy Tan

Day Born Feel Like Look Always Mothers Cautious Huge Huge Influence Afraid Influence Us Should Teaching

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

Success You Rebellion Both Attack Conformity

There is this myth, that America is a melting pot, but what happens in assimilation is that we end up deliberately choosing the American things - hot dogs and apple pie - and ignoring the Chinese offerings. Amy Tan

My breakfast is usually a wholegrain cereal or porridge, with walnuts sprinkled in it, berries, a tablespoon of honey, and chia seeds. I have coffee and a little cherry juice with seltzer. I have a seat by the window, and I look out at the view. Amy Tan

Coffee Breakfast Honey Out Berries Seeds Window Look Cherry Juice Sprinkled Little Cereal View Seat

My older brother and I read all the time. My father read, but only things related to religion. One year, he did read a set of stories that was called something like '365 Stories' out loud to us. They followed a family for the year, a page a day. They were about kids with simple problems - like a wheel coming off their bicycle. Amy Tan

Time Day Family Religion Simple Problems Father Bicycle Year Older Related Kids Out Brother Followed About Something Only He Like Read Coming Were Off Loud Did Wheel Stories Us Page Older Brother Things Set

I felt ashamed of being different and ashamed of feeling that way. Amy Tan

Feeling Way Felt Being Different Being Different Ashamed

My mother's openness has remained inspiring to me. I strive to be a skeptic, in the best sense of that word: I question everything, and yet I'm open to everything. And I don't have immovable beliefs. My values shift and grow with my experiences - and as my context changes, so does what I believe. Amy Tan

Best Me Mother Word Values Sense Believe Changes Everything Strive Immovable Remained Inspiring Open Openness Does Context Shift Question Experiences Skeptic Grow Beliefs

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

You Somebody Else Says Circumstances Gives Nobody America Keep

At the beginning of my career as a writer, I felt I knew nothing of Chinese culture. I was writing about emotional confusion with my mother related to our different beliefs. Hers was based in family history, which I didn't know anything about. I always felt hesitant in talking about Chinese culture and American culture. Amy Tan

Family History Culture Writing Mother Confusion Beginning Nothing Related Hers Hesitant Our About Emotional Writer Knew Know Talking Felt Always American Family History American Culture Different Anything Different Beliefs Which Chinese Chinese Culture Beliefs Based Career

My mother left behind three daughters when she went to America and started a new life. I certainly felt abandoned when my father died of a brain tumour; I felt he had abandoned me to this terrible, volatile mother and I had no protection. Amy Tan

Life Me Protection Mother New Life Father Three Abandoned Daughters Volatile Had He New She Terrible Felt Brain Left America Died Behind Certainly Started

You write a book and you hope somebody will go out and pay $24.95 for what you've just said. I think books were my salvation. Books saved me from being miserable. Amy Tan

Hope Me You Book Will Somebody Miserable Pay Think Saved Books Out Write Said Go Were Salvation Just Being

I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water. Amy Tan

Myself Water Face Lose Pain Down Worn Once Way Out Carving Over Years Did Same Stone Washing Away

People think it's a terrible tragedy when somebody has Alzheimer's. But in my mother's case, it's different. My mother has been unhappy all her life. For the first time in her life, she's happy. Amy Tan

Life Time Happy People Mother Unhappy Somebody First Think Has-Been Case She Terrible First Time Alzheimer Been Tragedy Different Her

I went to an exhibition at San Francisco's Asian Art Museum about Shanghai, about how courtesans had been influential in bringing western culture to Shanghai. I bought a book and in it saw this striking group of women in a photograph called 'The Ten Beauties of Shanghai'. Amy Tan

Art Culture Women Book Group Saw Striking Francisco Photograph About Ten Shanghai Had Beauties Bought How Exhibition Been Western Western Culture Influential San Asian Bringing Museum

I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life. Amy Tan

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