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.

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.

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

When Chinese get together - what's buried stays buried. We don't even discuss our embarrassing early days struggling in Chicago.

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.

There have been 50 or 60 books written about Empress Orchid, but none of them bothered to really examine the period in China when she lived. I was taught that she was evil; it's in all the textbooks.

My mind swirled with memories of the life I had led. The constant struggle to keep up appearances, the pretenses, the smiles that had been met with tears. The long sleepless nights, the loneliness that cloaked my spirit and turned me into a true ghost.