The greatest calling of all is to have a literary life.

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

In our country we call this type of mother love teng ai. My son has told me that in men's writing it is composed of two characters. The first means pain; the second means love. That is a mother's love.

It used to happen in villages and towns in China that they would have - I guess you'd call them beauty contests - where all of the women of a particular village or town would be seated behind these screens or curtains with only their feet showing.

The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child.

My hardcover sales are 17% down in books but up 400% in electronics.

He was in my hair, my eyes, my fingers, my heart. I day-dreamed about what he was doing, thinking, seeing, smelling, feeling. I could not eat for thoughts of him.