“At the age of three my grand aunt proclaimed her independence by categorically refusing to have her feet bound, resolutely tearing off the bandages as fast as they were applied.”

But you will still look Chinese, and when people meet you, they’ll see a Chinese girl no matter how well you speak English.

To my surprise I found her cheerful and free of pain, perhaps because of the small doses of morphine she was being given.

You must rely on yourself. No matter what else people may steal from you, they will never be able to take away your knowledge.

She was surrounded by neighbours and friends who congregated at her bedside day and night.

People with yuan fen are destined to like one another

In this cosy, noisy, gregarious world of the “all-chinese” sickbed, so different from the stark, sterile solitude of the American hospital room, her life had assumed the astounding quality of a continuous farewell party.

Suen Le! (it means, “Let it be.

Revenge is not worthy of you. If you concentrate on revenge, you will keep those wounds fresh that would otherwise have healed.

The future belongs to you. Should anyone insult you, tell yourself this:

But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.

You have your whole life ahead of you. Be smart. Study hard and be independent.

She was bedridden falling a fall which broke her hip.

Keep in mind that whenever you are in a crisis, you are in the midst of danger as well as opportunity.

Please believe that one single positive dream is more important than a thousand negative realities.

I read because I have to. It drives everything else from my mind. It lets me escape to find other world.

The world is changing. You must make your own life outside this home.

Immediately on landing I got together my few effects; and, squeezing myself through the crowd,

No man alive can say, This shall not happen to me.

We’re talking about the struggle to drag a thought over from the mush of the unconscious into some kind of grammar, syntax, human sense; every attempt means starting over with language. Starting over with accuracy.

I was an expert on why everyone else was having problems with theirs. Then I had three of my own.

When I began to be published, people got the idea that I should ‘teach writing,’ which I have no idea how to do and don’t really believe in.

Listen … With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts

Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.

I never consciously set out to be an actor. I just kind of did whatever acting I could do.