F.C. Yee Quotes

People can always say I don't look impressive enough, but they can't argue over how strong I am once I punch them in the face.

I believe I have to make peace with my own choices, just like everyone else.

No fire is ever the same fire. No Avatar is ever the same person. You and the flame change with every moment, every generation. You are one flame, and you are many.

I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn't have to look at my arm trailing away like the streamer on a bike handle.

"I can't be stuck like this!" I wailed. Visions of having to gnaw it off like a jackal in a trap flooded my brain.

Quentin knelt before me and put his hands on my trembling shoulders.

"You're not going to be stuck," he said, his voice low and reassuring in my ears. "You are the most powerful thing on Earth short of a god. You can do absolutely anything. So believe me when I say you can certainly change your arm back to normal."

He held me firmly, the way you'd brace someone trying to pop a dislocated joint back into place. "Just relax and breathe," he said. "It'll happen as you will it."

I took his advice and focused on calming down. Focused on nothing. Focused on him.

I couldn't really feel my arm retracting. And I certainly didn't want to look at it happening. I just . . . remembered how I was supposed to be. I kept quiet, kept at it for what must have been a good ten minutes, until I could feel both of my hands firmly on Quentin's broad back.

"There you go," he said.

I opened my eyes. My arm was normal again. I was aware that we were sort of hugging.

I buried my face in his chest and blew my nose on his shirt. "I'm a human being," I muttered.

"I never said you weren't."

I raised my head. Quentin looked at me with a smile that was free of any smu

The illusion that the self is separate from the rest of the world is the driving factor that limits our potential. Once you realize there's nothing special about the self, it becomes easier to manipulate.

My friend is not a diplomat. She is the failure of diplomacy. She is the breakdown of negotiations. There is no escalation of hostilities beyond her.

All this fretting about the spirits. I'm trying to teach you about the mind. An infinite world that's been neglected by far too many explorers.

Another flash of light streamed through the windows and then faded. I didn't feel the need to go outside and check that they were gone. Guanyin really did not screw around when it came to making an exit.

I turned to Quentin. "How much of a dick do you have to be to upset the Goddess of Compassion into leaving without saying goodbye?

They're all the same, Kyoshi thought. Every single one. Whether they clothe themselves in business or brotherhood or a higher calling only they can see, it doesn't matter. They're one and the same. They look at themselves like forces of nature, as inevitable ends, but they're not. Their depth is as false as the shoals at low tide. They twist the meaning of justice to absolve themselves of conscience. They're humans like us, made of skin and guts and pain. They need to be reminded of that fact.

The sheer amount of effort I was putting into these essays had to add up to something. It would be a violation of thermodynamics if it didn't.

Because it wasn't enough to be accompanied by the beast who scared the crap out of every god in Heaven, Xuanzang was assigned a few more traveling companions. The gluttonous pig-man Zhu Baijie. Sha Wujing, the repentant sand demon. And the Dragon Prince of the West Sea, who took the form of a horse for Xuanzang to ride. The five adventurers, thusly gathered, set off on their -

"Holy ballsacks!" I yelped. I dropped the book like I'd been bitten.

"How far did you get?" Quentin said.

He was leaning against the end of the nearest shelf, as casually as if he'd been there the whole time, waiting for this moment.

I ignored that he'd snuck up on me again, just this once. There was a bigger issue at play.

In the book was an illustration of the group done up in bold lines and bright colors. There was Sun Wukong at the front, dressed in a beggar's cassock, holding his Ruyi Jingu Bang in one hand and the reins of the Dragon Horse in the other. A scary-looking pig-faced man and a wide-eyed demon monk followed, carrying the luggage. And perched on top of the horse was . . . me.

The artist had tried to give Xuanzang delicate, beatific features and ended up with a rather girly face. By whatever coincidence, the drawing of Sun Wukong's old master could have been a rough caricature of sixteen-year-old Eugenia Lo from Santa Firenza, California.

"That's who you think I am?" I said to Quentin.

"That's who I k

Water was calmness and tranquility, but it was the rage of a storm as well.

Both sides' was a rhetorical weapon used by hypocrites and the ignorant.

I let the divine being leave first and gave him a few minutes to do whatever it was he needed to do to get back to Heaven. It seemed polite, though I'd only made that rule up in my head.

When I stepped out of the shack, Quentin was there by the roadside, waiting for me.

"Have a nice chat?"

I knew his peevish tone was his usual allergic reaction to Erlang Shen, but for some reason I didn't field it well today.

"Yeah, we really connected on an emotional level," I snapped. "I promised to turn into a stick for him."

That was perhaps the weirdest, most hyper-targeted dig I'd ever leveled at someone, but boy did it work. Quentin looked like I'd broken him in half and left him on the curb for pickup. He was completely silent the entire trip back to civilization.

He didn't call or text me that night either

I was ready when Quentin approached me after school the following day.

"Genie," he said. "Please. Let me expl - moomph!"

"Stay away," I said, mashing the bulb of garlic into his face as hard as I could. I didn't have any crosses or holy water at home. I had to work with what was available.

Quentin slowly picked the cloves out of my hand before popping them into his mouth.

"That's white vampires," he said, chewing and swallowing the raw garlic like a bite of fruit. "If I was a jiangshi you should have brought a mirror."

I wrinkled my nose. "You're going to stink now."

"What, like a Chinese?" He pursed his lips and blew a kiss at me.

Instead of being pungent, his breath was sweet with plum blossoms and coconut. Like his body magically refused to be anything but intensely appealing to me, even on a molecular level.

I tried to swat away his scent before it made me drunk.

Nope! Gonna cut you off right there. The last time I listened to a Firebender talk about 'honor' my ears nearly rotted off my skull. Had to kick him out of my bed with both feet.

Weakness is practiced and learned as much as strength is!