Lisa See Quotes
-
When you don’t have much, having less isn’t so bad.
→ -
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.
→ -
I think all women have a friend who at some point dumped them or betrayed them or deeply disappointed them. And at the same time all women have a friend who they dumped or betrayed or hurt in some way. That's universal in women's friendships.
→ -
Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.
→ -
You may be desperate, but never let anyone see you as anything less than a cultivated woman.
→ -
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.
→ -
You can't fight your fate...It is predestined.
→ -
Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.
→ -
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.
→ -
We hug, but there are no tears. For every awful thing that's been said and done, she is my sister. Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life. She is the only person left in the world who shares my memories of our childhood, our parents, our Shanghai, our struggles, our sorrows, and, yes, even our moments of happiness and triumph. My sister is the one person who truly knows me, as I know her. The last thing May says to me is 'When our hair is white, we'll still have our sister love.
→ -
If it is perfectly acceptable for a widow to disfigure herself or commit suicide to save face for her husband's family, why should a mother not be moved to extreme action by the loss of a child or children? We are their caretakers. We love them. We nurse them when they are sick. . . But no woman should live longer than her children. It is against the law of nature. If she does, why wouldn't she wish to leap from a cliff, hang from a branch, or swallow lye?
→ -
Let those who believe, believe. Let those who doubt, doubt.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
When people are alive they love, when they die, they keep loving. If love ends when person dies, that is not real love
→ -
In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.
→ -
i would rather be married to broken jade than flawless clay
→ -
But there are certain books I would never put on a Kindle because you want to be able to look at graphs and photos or the footnotes and maps. You can't see that.
→ -
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.
→ -
I’ve never thought much about whether I was happy or if I had fun as a child. I was a so-so girl who lived with a so-so family in a so-so village. I didn’t know that there might be another way to live, and I didn’t worry about it either.
→ -
The greatest calling of all is to have a literary life.
→ -
a laotong relationship is made by choice...when we first looked in each other's eyes in the palanquin I felt something special pass between us--like a spark to start a fire or a seed to grow rice. But a single spark is not enough to warm a room nor is a single seed enough to grow a fruitful crop. Deep love--true-heart love--must grow.
→ -
We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.
→ -
My love for him had never gone away but only changed, growing deeper like wine fermenting or pickles curing. It bore into me with the pervasiveness of water working its way to the center of a mountain.
→ -
It's funny how in that moment I see things clearly. Am I beaten down? Yes. Have I allowed myself to become a victim? Somewhat. Am I afraid? Always. Does some part of me still long to fly away from this place? Absolutely. But I can't leave. Sam and I have built a life for Joy. It isn't perfect, but it's a life. My family's happiness means more to me that starting over again. Page 210
→ -
Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.
→ -
A brave heart? It feels like a swollen and aching thing in my chest.
→ -
You make choices that are good and sound, but the gods have other plans for you.
→
Related Authors
-
Khaled Hosseini Novelist -
Gail Tsukiyama Novelist -
William Zinsser Writer -
Kim Edwards Author -
Jamie Ford Author -
Li Bingbing Actress -
Lisa Scottoline Author -
Diana Gabaldon Author -
Maxine Hong Kingston Author -
Carolyn See Professor -
Adriana Trigiani Novelist -
Arthur Golden Writer -
Mary Ann Shaffer Writer -
Chris Bohjalian Novelist -
Anchee Min Author -
Sue Monk Kidd Writer -
Jean Kwok Writer -
Pearl S. Buck Writer -
Alan Furst Author -
Amy Tan Film writer