My parents told me I would become a doctor and then in my spare time I would become a concert pianist. So, both my day job and my spare time were sort of taken care of.

Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.

I would still like to have that luxury, to be able to just sit and draw for hours and hours and hours. In a way, that's what I do as a writer.

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.

No one in my family was a reader of literary fiction. So, I didn't have encouragement, but I didn't have discouragement, because I don't think anybody knew what that meant.

I won't be what I'm not. -Jing-mei

You can have pride in what you do each day, but not arrogance in what you were born with.