But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better. -Jing-mei

Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.

She would be quiet at first. Then she would say a word about something small, something she had noticed, and then another word, and another, each one flung out like a little piece of sand, one from this direction, another form behind, more and more, until his looks, his character, his soul would have eroded away . . . I was afraid that some unseen speck of truth would fly into my eye, blur what I was seeing and transform him from the divine man I thought he was into someone quite mundane, mortally wounded with tiresome habits and irritating imperfections.

When you already believe something, how can you suddenly stop? When you are a loyal friend, how can you no longer be one?

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

What is true about a person? Would I change in the same way the river changes color but still be the same person?... And then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wind. I couldn't see the wind itself, but I could see it carried water that filled the rivers and shaped the countryside.

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