Lisa See Quotes

“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.”

“In our country we call this type of mother love teng ai. My son has told me that in men's writing it is composed of two characters. The first means pain; the second means love. That is a mother's love.”

“Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming -- weren't our dreams what gave us strength, hope, and desire?”

“We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.”

“In every message she spoke of birds, of flight, of the world away. Even back then, she flew against what was presented to her. I wanted to cling to her wings and soar, no matter how intimidated I was.”

“My heart is empty & my life has no value anymore. Each moment a thousand tears.”

“For my entire life I longed for love. I knew it was not right for me — as a girl and later as a woman — to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in my life.”

“Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.”

“He was in my hair, my eyes, my fingers, my heart. I day-dreamed about what he was doing, thinking, seeing, smelling, feeling. I could not eat for thoughts of him.”

“In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”

“Anyone who says that women do not have influence in men's decisions makes a vast and stupid mistake.”

“Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.”

“Maybe we're all like that with our mothers. They seem ordinary until one day they're extraordinary.”

“You may be desperate, but never let anyone see you as anything less than a cultivated woman.”

“When people are alive they love, when they die, they keep loving. If love ends when person dies, that is not real love”

“How can we not create a fantasy in our minds when the reality is so hard?”

“Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.”

“Perhaps he was afraid as I was that we'd be caught. Or perhaps he was breathing me in just as I was letting him come into my lungs, my eyes, my heart.”

“all girls have dreams, even if our destinies are set.”