Anchee Min Quotes

Mao had decided to make the city his new capital, and he had its name changed from Peking to Beijing.

When Chinese get together - what's buried stays buried. We don't even discuss our embarrassing early days struggling in Chicago.

The self was a very strange concept to me until I came to America, and my child was born with that entitlement, and that just thrilled me.

Mother once told me that one had to lower one's head when passing under low eaves in order to avoid injury.

My mother was taught the ch'an concept of happiness, which was to find satisfaction in small things. i was taught to appreciate the fresh air in the morning, the colour of leaves turning red in autumn and the water's smoothness when i soaked my hands in the basin.

The sun doesn't just hang on one family's tree

I understood that without English I would never get far, so my dream was to become a receptionist, and so I started to learn English from watching 'Sesame Street.'

We were meant to survive because of our minds' ability to reason, our ability to live with frustration in order to maintain our virtue. We wore smiling masks while dying inside.

To live is to experience dying and is worse than death,

She sat calmly sipping her tea. I wondered

I was happy not to be in his place. He could command my death, but not his. But then, what kind of power was his? He was a prisoner of himself.

There are a lot of things that immigrants, especially Chinese-Americans, want to share with their children, but there are a lot of things they don't want to share.

My goal was to do anything that would lead to a job. I know that writing would not lead to a job. It's too fancy for me. My biggest goal was to be an office receptionist, answer phones. I didn't expect to go beyond that.

My mind swirled with memories of the life I had led. The constant struggle to keep up appearances, the pretenses, the smiles that had been met with tears. The long sleepless nights, the loneliness that cloaked my spirit and turned me into a true ghost.

My parents lived likeas the neighbours described thema pair of chopsticks, always in harmony.

If you can't go back to your mother's womb, you'd better learn to be a good fighter.

If one wants to get a boat ride, one must be near the river.

When I first came to America, you know, I would look at the newsstands and see the women on the magazine covers. I had never seen anyone smile the way these girls smile! It's like they have nothing to worry about!

There have been 50 or 60 books written about Empress Orchid, but none of them bothered to really examine the period in China when she lived. I was taught that she was evil; it's in all the textbooks.

She smiled sadly and recited a saying: "When the guest leaves, the tea will soon get cold." I said my cup of tea would never get cold. Lu

I stood in the wind and tried to get through the moment.

The most important lesson he taught me was that there was no one singular perspective on things or emotions in the universe - no one way of comprehending truth.

I think about giving up. I almost do.

Tea, opera and poetry should not be missed - longevity depends on one's mental cultivation.

To be able to do art, it was a luxury to me.

Tea tasted the best at its second pouring. A