Hope is the adrenalin of the soul.

She would be quiet at first. Then she would say a word about something small, something she had noticed, and then another word, and another, each one flung out like a little piece of sand, one from this direction, another form behind, more and more, until his looks, his character, his soul would have eroded away . . . I was afraid that some unseen speck of truth would fly into my eye, blur what I was seeing and transform him from the divine man I thought he was into someone quite mundane, mortally wounded with tiresome habits and irritating imperfections.

Her education only made her unhappy thinking about it - that no matter how much she changed her life, she could not change the world that surrounded her.

too much happiness always overflowed into tears of sorrow.

I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?

I like to go somewhere where I learn something I didn't know before, like the Dry Tortugas between Florida and Cuba.

Your only shame is to have shame.