i would rather be married to broken jade than flawless clay

Mama used to tell us a story about a cicada sitting high in a tree. It chirps and drinks in dew, oblivious to the praying mantis behind it. The mantis arches up its front leg to stab the cicada, but it doesn't know an oriole perches behind it. The bird stretches out its neck to snap up the mantis for a midday meal, but its unaware of the boy who's come into the garden with a net. Three creatures—the cicada, the mantis and the oriole—all coveted gains without being aware of the greater and inescapable danger that was coming.

Gone were my girlish ideas about romantic love and my later ideas about sexual love. From Yi, I learned to appreciate deep-heart love. Peony in Love

She loves you. She's just forgotten how to show it.

You may be desperate, but never let anyone see you as anything less than a cultivated woman.

What stays with me most is a general sense of loss, unease, and longing for the past that cannot be relieved.

People write to me all the time, and I write back.