Mothers have the huge influence, and I feel like they're always teaching us from the day we're born what to be afraid of, what to be cautious of, what we should like and what we should look like. Then we spend half of our life trying to be not like them, and then we reach another part of our lives where we see these things we can't get rid of.

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

That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.

In [writing] fiction, every sentence is its own reward.

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

I saw my mother in a different light. We all need to do that. You have to be displaced from what's comfortable and routine, and then you get to see things with fresh eyes, with new eyes.

If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever. -An-mei