I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away.

And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.

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

I was intelligent enough to make up my own mind. I not only had freedom of choice, I had freedom of expression.

He asked if he could recite a poem he had written that morning: 'You speak,' he said, 'the language of shooting stars, more surprising than sunrise, more brilliant than the sun, as brief as sunset. I want to follow its trail to eternity.

Wise guy, he not go against wind. In Chinese we say, Come from South, blow with wind -- poom! -- North will follow. Strongest wind cannot be seen.

Isn't that how it is when you must decide with your heart? You are not just choosing one thing over another. You are choosing what you want. And you are also choosing what somebody else does not want, and all the consequences that follow. You can tell yourself, That's not my problem, but those words do not wash the trouble away. Maybe it is no longer a problem in your life. But it is always a problem in your heart.