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.

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

I hated the tests the raised hopes and failed expectations.

I AM A PERSON WHO THINKS ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT WHEN I WRITE. I THINK ABOUT WHAT CAN'T BE KNOWN AND ONLY IMAGINED. I OFTEN SENSE A SPIRIT OR FORCE OR MEANING BEYOND MYSELF. I LEAVE IT OPEN AS TO WHAT THE SPIRIT IS, BUT I CONTINUE TO MAKE GUESSES.

You write a book and you hope somebody will go out and pay $24.95 for what you've just said. I think books were my salvation. Books saved me from being miserable.

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.

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.