Amy Tan: Doing

Amy Tan is American novelist. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Amy Tan: 178 quotes4 likes

“Now you see,' said the turtle, drifting back into the pond, 'why it is useless to cry. Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that is why you must learn to swallow your own tears.”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

“You must think for yourself, what you must do. If someone tells you, then you are not trying.
-An-mei”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

“Why do you think you are missing something you never had?”

Amy Tan

“Don't think too much. That makes you believe you have more choices than you do. Then you mind becomes confused.”

Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses

Source: The Hundred Secret Senses

“There's no hope. There's no reason to keep trying.
Because you must. This is not hope. Not reason. This is your fate. This is your life, what you must do.”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

“You can have pride in what you do each day, but not arrogance in what you were born with.”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

Source: The Bonesetter's Daughter

“Your tears do not wash away your sorrows. They feed someone else's joy. And that is why you must learn to swallow your own tears.”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

“I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club (1989), Ch. 15, pg. 254

“External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself.”

Amy Tan

American Acheivement interview (1996)

“Look at this face. Do you see my foolish hope?”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club (1989), Ch. 16, pg. 283

“I was writing for businesses. I think my mother was a little skeptical in the beginning, but fortunately, as a free-lance writer I was successful almost immediately. And so she was very proud, because she measured success in terms of money, which is what I started to do as well. My goal then, became to increase the amount of money that I made each month. Not simply each year, but each month — I mean, talk about pressure — to have more billable hours each month. So that by the end of my third year of being a free-lance writer, I was billing 90 hours a week. I had no time to sleep. I had no life. People said I was crazy, that I was a workaholic. And I couldn't understand how it was that I had these wonderful clients, and I was making all this money, and I wasn't happy and I didn't feel successful. That's when I started to write fiction.”

Amy Tan

American Acheivement interview (1996)