Each person is made of five different elements, she told me. Too much fire and you had a bad temper. That was like my father, whom my mother always critized for his cigarette habit and who always shouted back that she should feel guilty that he didn't let my mother speak her mind. Too little wood and you bent too quickly to listen to other people's ideas, unable to stand on your own. This was like my Auntie An-mei. Too much water and you flowed in too many different directions. like myself.

You should think about your character. Know where you are changing, how you will be changed, what cannot be changed back again.

My parents had very high expectations. They expected me to get straight A's from the time I was in kindergarten.

It means we're looking one way, while following another. We're for one side and also the other. We mean what we say, but our intentions are different.

Don't think too much. That makes you believe you have more choices than you do. Then you mind becomes confused.

Words are more ardent if a man must struggle to find them.

The life we receive is not always what we choose.