In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.

I learned to forgive myself, and that enabled me to forgive my mother as a person.

It's both rebellion and conformity that attack you with success.

That was a wonderful period in my life. I mean, I didn't become an artist, but somebody let me do something I loved. What a luxury, to do something you love to do.

Now I was a tiger that neither pounced nor lay waiting between the trees. I became an unseen spirit.

A girl is like a young tree, she said. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind. And then you will be like a weed, growing wild in any direction, running along the ground until someone pulls you out and throws you away.

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