If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever. -An-mei

When you lose your face..., it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you can get it back is to fall in after it.

People there only dream that it is China, because if you are Chinese you can never let go of China in your mind.

I saw what I had been fighting for: It was for me, a scared child, who had run away a long time ago to what I had imagined was a safer place. And hiding in this place, behind my invisible barriers, I knew what lay on the other side: Her side attacks. Her secret weapons. Her uncanny ability to find my weakest spots. But in the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers I could finally see what was finally there: an old woman, a wok for her armor, a knitting needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.

Ying-ying, you have tiger eyes. They gather fire in the day. At night they shine golden.

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

Secrets are kept from children, a lid on top of the soup kettle, so they do not boil over with too much truth.