Quotes by Amy Tan

About Amy Tan:

Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese-American experience. Her best-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages. In 1993, the book was adapted into a commercially successful film.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

He simply translated what was in LuLing's heart: her better intentions, her hopes.

Amy Tan

...you have to believe in its principles. Anything is possible, as long as it's for the good of the world. Make the exception. Live exceptionally. And if you can't do that, maybe we should consider whether you're right for the project. Think about it...

Amy Tan

All objects exist in a moment of time.

Amy Tan

Forever did not mean what it once had. Forever was what changed inevitably over time.

Amy Tan

Free time was the most precious time, when you should be doing what you loved, or at least slowing down enough to remember what made your life worthwhile and happy.

Amy Tan

So much of history is mystery. We don't know what is lost forever, what will surface again. All objects exist in a moment of time. And that fragment of time is preserved or lost or found in mysterious ways. Mystery is a wonderful part of life.

Amy Tan

After all, Bao Bomu says, what is the past but what we choose to remember?

Amy Tan

What is the past but what we choose to remember?

Amy Tan

A mother is always the beginning. She is how things begin.

Amy Tan

Now they seemed to be in a contest over who could irritate her more, and she sometimes had to remind herself that teenagers had souls

Amy Tan

Dementia was like a truth serum.

Amy Tan

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

Amy Tan

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

Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power.

Amy Tan

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

Chinese artists have been subversive over thousands of years, taking what they think of the government and embedding it in their art. There might be censorship of not going as far as they might.

Amy Tan

too much happiness always overflowed into tears of sorrow.

Amy Tan

We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming - well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.

Amy Tan

Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming - well, that's like saying you can never change your fate. Isn't that true?

Amy Tan

Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.

Amy Tan

Author Bio

  • NameAmy Tan
  • DescriptionAmerican novelist
  • BornFebruary 19, 1952
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist; Essayist
  • WorksThe Joy Luck Club