I felt foolish and tired, as if I had been running to escape someone chasing me, only to look behind to discover there was no one there.

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

You should think about your character. Know where you are changing, how you will be changed, what cannot be changed back again.

And I remember wondering why it was that eating something good could make me feel so terrible, while vomiting something terrible could make me feel so good.

I had always assumed we had an unspoken understanding about these things: that she didn't really mean I was a failure, and I really meant I would try to respect her opinions more. But listening to Auntie Lin tonight reminds me once agian: My mother and I never really understood one another. We translated each other's meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more. No doubt she told Auntie Lin I was going back to school to get a doctorate.

I thought I was clever enough to write as well as these people and I didn't realize that there is something called originality and your own voice.

I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water.