Lisa See Quotes

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.

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.

Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.

And one of the interesting things about bound feet is that they never age.

When I knew I couldn't suffer another moment of pain, and tears fell on my bloody bindings, my mother spoke softly into my ear, encouraging me to go one more hour, one more day, one more week, reminding me of the rewards I would have if I carried on a little longer. In this way, she taught me how to endure — not just the physical trials of footbinding and childbearing but the more torturous pain of the heart, mind, and soul.

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

Don't ever feel that you have to hide who you are. Nothing good ever comes from keeping secrets like that.

Perhaps he was afraid as I was that we'd be caught. Or perhaps he was breathing me in just as I was letting him come into my lungs, my eyes, my heart.

How can we not create a fantasy in our minds when the reality is so hard?

All women on earth-- and men, too for that matter-- hope for the kind of love that transforms us, raises us up out of the everyday, & gives us the courage to survive our little deaths: the heartache of unfulfilled dreams, of career and personal disappointments, of broken love affairs.

My heart is empty & my life has no value anymore. Each moment a thousand tears.

Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life.

And often it would be a woman who was in her 70s or 80s who would win the beauty contest, because bound feet never age.

Snow Flower was my old same for life. I had a greater and deeper love for her than I could ever feel for a person who was my husband.

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

When the sun is shining, think of the time it won't be, because even when you're sitting in your house with the doors shut, misfortune can fall from above. Page 279

Model communes are the ones where the leaders lie the best and the biggest.

While she is lovely, we need to remember that her face is not what distinguishes her. Her beauty is a reflection of the virtue and talent she keeps inside.

Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.

You can't fight your fate...It is predestined.

I didn't know you would be here last night, but you were. We can't fight fate. Instead, we must accept that fate has given us a special opportunity.

I am still learning about love. I thought I understood it--not just mother love, but the love for one's parents, for one's husband, and for one's laotong. I've experienced the other types of love--pity love, respectful love and gratitude love. But looking at our secret fan with its messages written between Snow Flower and me over many years, I see that I didn't value the most important love--deep-heart love.

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