My goal was to do anything that would lead to a job. I know that writing would not lead to a job. It's too fancy for me. My biggest goal was to be an office receptionist, answer phones. I didn't expect to go beyond that.

We were meant to survive because of our minds' ability to reason, our ability to live with frustration in order to maintain our virtue. We wore smiling masks while dying inside.

No matter how American I become, I'm considered part of the Chinese community by my own family.

If one wants to get a boat ride, one must be near the river.

The self was a very strange concept to me until I came to America, and my child was born with that entitlement, and that just thrilled me.

To be able to do art, it was a luxury to me.

I was happy not to be in his place. He could command my death, but not his. But then, what kind of power was his? He was a prisoner of himself.