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

my mother was taught the ch'an concept of happiness, which was to find satisfaction in small things. i was taught to appreciate the fresh air in the morning, the colour of leaves turning red in autumn and the water's smoothness when i soaked my hands in the basin.

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.

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

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.

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.

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