Amy Tan

Look at this face. Do you see my foolish hope?

I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control.

"You see what power is — holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them! Besides, maybe it is true. Maybe Peanut and Little Yu's mother are now big Communists, who knows?"

For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds.

I had new thoughts, willful thoughts, or rather thoughts filled with lots of won'ts. I won't let her change me, I promised myself. I won't be what I'm not.

I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?

On the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother's case, this would be the first day of the lunar new year. And because it is the new year, all debts must be paid, or disaster and misfortune will follow.

I have always known a thing before it happens.

After the gold was removed from my body I felt lighter, more free. They say this is what happens if you lack metal. You begin to think as an independent person.

That was the night, in the kitchen, that I realized I was no better than who I was... And I no longer felt angry at Waverly. I felt tired and foolish, as if I had been running to escape someone chasing me, only to look behind and discover there was no one there.

When I want something to happen — or not happen — I begin to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid.

I found the opportunity.

Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.