Clichés are static, the emotion behind them long spent. If you are tempted to use them, here is a saying of my mother’s: Fang pi bu-cho, cho pi bu-fang. Basically that translates to: "Loud farts don’t stink, and the really smelly ones don’t make a sound." In other words: When you’re full of beans, you just blow a lot of hot air. If you want to have a real impact, be deadly but silent. Oh, also recognize the difference between a bad cliché and a good quotation. My mother’s saying is a good quotation. You should use it often.

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.

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

What is a secret wish?" "It is what you want but cannot ask.

With each passing day, I didn't lose hope. I fought to have more.

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

Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.