Why do you think you are missing something you never had?

Now I was a tiger that neither pounced nor lay waiting between the trees. I became an unseen spirit.

I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese.

It was a distorted form of inverse logic: If hopes never come true, then hope for what you don't want.

Even if I had expected it, even if I had known what I was going to do with my life, it would have knocked the wind out of me. When something that violent hits you, you can't help but lose your balance and fall. And after you pick yourself up, you realize you can't trust anybody to save you- not your husband, not your mother, not God. So what can you do to stop yourself from tilting and falling all over again?

Among writers, if you don't have a therapist, it's like saying you don't keep a journal or use the thesaurus. It's a natural accompaniment.

With each passing day, I didn't lose hope. I fought to have more.