Amy Tan Quotes & Sayings

“Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power.”

“I am an American, steeped in American values. But I know on an emotional level what it means to be of the Chinese culture.”

“Writing is an extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift of giving a story to someone.”

“God, life changes faster than you think.”

“At the beginning of my career as a writer, I felt I knew nothing of Chinese culture. I was writing about emotional confusion with my mother related to our different beliefs. Hers was based in family history, which I didn't know anything about. I always felt hesitant in talking about Chinese culture and American culture.”

“In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.”

“I saw my mother in a different light. We all need to do that. You have to be displaced from what's comfortable and routine, and then you get to see things with fresh eyes, with new eyes.”

“I was intelligent enough to make up my own mind. I not only had freedom of choice, I had freedom of expression.”

“It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.”

“No one in my family was a reader of literary fiction. So, I didn't have encouragement, but I didn't have discouragement, because I don't think anybody knew what that meant.”