Quotes from work
The Hundred Secret Senses

The Hundred Secret Senses

The Hundred Secret Senses is a bestselling 1995 novel by Chinese-American writer Amy Tan. It was published by Putnam, and was shortlisted for the 1996 Orange Prize for Fiction. While the story is fictional, it is based on the experiences of Tan and on stories told by her mother.


Amy Tan photo

“Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.”

Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses

Source: The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), p. 9
Source: The Hundred Secret Senses

Amy Tan photo
Amy Tan photo
Amy Tan photo
Amy Tan photo
Amy Tan photo

“Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming — well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate. Isn’t that true?”

Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses

Variant: Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming — well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate. Isn’t that true?
Source: The Hundred Secret Senses (1995)

Amy Tan photo
Amy Tan photo

“My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes.”

Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses

The Hundred Secret Senses (1995)
Context: My sister Kwan believes she has yin eyes. She sees those who have died and now dwell in the World of Yin, ghosts who leave the mists just to visit her kitchen on Balboa Street in San Francisco.
"Libby-ah," she'll say to me. "Guess who I see yesterday, you guess." And I don't have to guess that she's talking about someone dead.

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