Can you imagine how it is, to want to be neither inside nor outside, to want to be nowhere and disappear?

I loved fairy tales when I was a kid. Grimm. The grimmer the better. I loved gruesome gothic tales and, in that respect, I liked Bible stories, because to me they were very gothic.

But I will win and give her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter. -Ying Ying

You remember only what you want to remember. You know only what your heart allows you to know.

There's no hope. There's no reason to keep trying. Because you must. This is not hope. Not reason. This is your fate. This is your life, what you must do.

Then she told me why a tiger is gold and black. It has two ways. The gold side leaps with its fierce heart. The black side stands still with cunning, hiding its gold between the trees, seeing and not being seen, waiting patiently for things to come. I did not learn to use my black side until after the bad man left me.

Only two kinds of daughters, she shouted in Chinese. Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind!