I grew up with Bible stories, which are like fairy tales, because my father was a minister. We heard verses and prayers every day. I liked the gorier Bible stories. I did have a book of Chinese fairy tales. All the people except the elders looked like Italians. But we were not a family that had fiction books. Amy Tan Read Quote
In the mid-1800s, they were known also as ‘singsong houses,’ and the courtesans were actually master musicians. Amy Tan Read Quote
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. Amy Tan Read Quote
When my mother read ‘The Joy Luck Club’, she was always complaining to me how she had to tell her friends that, no, she was not the mother or any of the mothers in the book. Amy Tan Read Quote
Until the age of five, my parents spoke to me in Chinese or a combination of Chinese and English, but they didn’t force me to speak Mandarin. In retrospect, this was sad, because they believed that my chance of doing well in America hinged on my fluency in English. Later, as an adult, I wanted to learn Chinese. Amy Tan Read Quote
I measured my success by how many clients I had and how many billable hours I had. Amy Tan Read Quote
She said ‘I’m by commission. You don’t have to pay anything until you sell anything.’ I said, ‘Well fine. You want to be my agent and not make anything.’ I thought, ‘Boy, is she dumb.’ Amy Tan Read Quote
I read a book a day when I was a kid. My family was not literary; we did not have any books in the house. Amy Tan Read Quote
