I think books were my salvation, they saved me from being miserable.

If I now recognize evil in other people, is it not because I have become evil too?

Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess." - Ch. 5

I take a few quick sips. "This is really good." And I mean it. I have never tasted tea like this. It is smooth, pungent, and instantly addicting. "This is from Grand Auntie," my mother explains. "She told me 'If I buy the cheap tea, then I am saying that my whole life has not been worth something better.' A few years ago she bought it for herself. One hundred dollars a pound." "You're kidding." I take another sip. It tastes even better.

I was punched breathless by the strongest emotions I have ever felt and they are now stored in my intuition as a writer.

My mother didn't teach me lessons about being Chinese as strongly as she did the notion of who I was as a female.

You have to be your own person. You can't let people's opinions determine how you think about yourself. There's a difference between identity and self-identity.