Amy Tan

Mothers have this huge influence, and I feel like they're always teaching us from the day we're born what to be afraid of, what to be cautious of, what we should like, and what we should look like. ”

My parents told me I would become a doctor and then in my spare time I would become a concert pianist. So, both my day job and my spare time were sort of taken care of. ”

I have many reasons why I think reading is really important. It provided for me a refuge, especially during difficult times. It provided me with the notion that I could find an ending that was different from what was happening to me at the time. ”

For many courtesans, it was over by age 22. ”

I'd like to be more forgiving. There are times when I've had a hard time forgiving people who have betrayed me. ”

We are the kind of people who obsess over one word... but we have only one shot to get it right in concert. It was hard the first time I practiced with them. I was so nervous that my vocal chords were paralyzed for about a half-hour. ”

My parents had very high expectations. They expected me to get straight A's from the time I was in kindergarten. ”

My mother said I was a clingy kid until I was about four. I also remember that from the age of eight she and I fought almost every day. ”

I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away. ”

When you read about the lives of other people, people of different circumstances or similar circumstances, you are part of their lives for that moment. You inhabit their lives, and you feel what they're feeling, and that is compassion. If we see that reading does allow us that, we see how absolutely essential reading is. ”