9376 quotes by novelists for you to enjoy

I am an American, steeped in American values. But I know on an emotional level what it means to be of the Chinese culture. Amy Tan

Culture Values Emotional Emotional Level Know Am American Chinese Chinese Culture Means American Values Level

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

I have a writer's memory which makes everything worse than maybe it actually was. Amy Tan

Memory Everything Worse Writer Makes Than Maybe Which Actually

I read a book a day when I was a kid. My family was not literary; we did not have any books in the house. Amy Tan

Day Family Book Books Kid House Read Did Any Literary

I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away. Amy Tan

Seven Throw Had Times Them Novel Away Second Started

I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private. Amy Tan

Art Myself Good Writing First Become Purely About Something Write Aesthetic Private Very Craft Just Wanted Stories Thing

My mother said I was a clingy kid until I was about four. I also remember that from the age of eight she and I fought almost every day. Amy Tan

Day Age Every Day Remember Mother Every Kid About Almost Almost Every Day Until Also She Said Eight Fought Four

My parents told me I would become a doctor and then in my spare time I would become a concert pianist. So, both my day job and my spare time were sort of taken care of. Amy Tan

Placing on writers the responsibility to represent a culture is an onerous burden. Amy Tan

Culture Burden Responsibility Writers Represent Placing

We are the kind of people who obsess over one word... but we have only one shot to get it right in concert. It was hard the first time I practiced with them. I was so nervous that my vocal chords were paralyzed for about a half-hour. Amy Tan

Time People Word Nervous First Kind One Word Paralyzed About Vocal Only Obsess Over Concert Practiced First Time Were Get Them Shot Hard Who Chords Right

I'm open to reading almost anything - fiction, nonfiction - as long as I know from the first sentence or two that this is a voice I want to listen to for a good long while. It has much to do with imagery and language, a particular perspective, the assured knowledge of the particular universe the writer has created. Amy Tan

Good Knowledge Perspective Language Long First Reading Universe Assured Voice Writer Open Almost Almost Anything Particular Know Nonfiction Listen Want Fiction Anything While Sentence Much Created Imagery Two

I don't steer clear of genres. I simply haven't steered myself toward some of them. Amy Tan

Myself Some Steer Steered Clear Simply Toward Genres Them

I would never require anyone to read any book. That seems antithetical to why we read - which is to choose a book for our personal reasons. I always shudder when I'm told my books are on required reading lists. Amy Tan

Quotes by Novelists