Lisa See Quotes

#1. Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life.

Lisa See

#2. have forced myself to move forward, but I can never move on.

Lisa See

#3. Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.

Lisa See

#4. I wonder if there was anything I would have done differently. I hope I would have done everything differently, except I know everything would have turned out the same. That's the meaning of fate.

Lisa See

#5. All girls have dreams, even if our destinies are set.

Lisa See

#6. I came here to be happy, and I'm going to be happy. If I smile, then maybe I can convince my body just how happy I am.

Lisa See

#7. The fallen leaves return to the root.

Lisa See

#8. Opium and heroin had not caused our poverty and hopelessness. Rather, poverty and hopelessness had brought about an unquenchable desire to forget. After

Lisa See

#9. I am an eighth Chinese, and I come from a large Chinese-American family in Los Angeles.

Lisa See

#10. winter gone, mountains clear, water sparkles.

Lisa See

#11. Maybe stories and memories are destined to be incomplete...

Lisa See

#12. Waves of heat shimmy off the tarmac, and the air is stiflingly hot, with humidity that's even worse

Lisa See

#13. When fortune comes, do not enjoy all of it; when advantage comes, do not take all of it.

Lisa See

#14. 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.

Lisa See

#15. I write what I'm interested in.

Lisa See

#16. But teaching a lesson isn't a part of friendship.

Lisa See

#17. While she is lovely, we need to remember that her face is not what distinguishes her. Her beauty is a reflection of the virtue and talent she keeps inside.

Lisa See

#18. You can't fight your fate ... It is predestined.

Lisa See

#19. Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming
weren't our dreams what gave us strength, hope, and desire?

Lisa See

#20. This is how things were: heavyhearted, but done in the traditional manner. THE

Lisa See

#21. 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.

Lisa See

#22. The three most important powers are Heaven, Earth and Man. The three luminaries are the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Opportunities given by Heaven are not equal to the advantages afforded by Earth, while the advantages of Earth do not match the blessings that come from harmony among men

Lisa See

#23. I've never thought much about whether I was happy or if I had fun as a child. I was a so-so girl who lived with a so-so family in a so-so village. I didn't know that there might be another way to live, and I didn't worry about it either.

Lisa See

#24. I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.

Lisa See

#25. What's the first impression you have of a new place? Is it the first meal you eat? The first time you have an ice cream cone? The first person you meet? The first night you spend in your new bed in your new home? The first broken promise?

Lisa See

#26. all mistakes are my own

Lisa See

#27. Dad was the biological vessel who helped put my soul into this body,

Lisa See

#28. To believe in dreams is to spend half your life asleep.

Lisa See

#29. May and I are sisters. We'll always fight, but we'll always make up as well. That's what sisters do: we argue, we point out each other's frailties, mistakes, and bad judgment, we flash the insecurities we've had since childhood, and then we come back together. Until the next time.

Lisa See

#30. I know a lot about women and their suffering, but I still know almost nothing about men.

Lisa See

#31. I saw that deep-heart love meant loving someone in spite of and because of his limitations.

Lisa See

#32. Tea reminds us to slow down and escape the pressures of modern life," he says

Lisa See

#33. I imagined my first night alone in bed with my stranger. I conjured our future years together unhampered by worries about money or officialdom. We would enjoy the day, the night, a smile, a word, a kiss, a glance. All lovely thoughts. All pointless dreams.

Lisa See

#34. A woman isn't just one thing. The past is in us, constantly changing us. Heartache and failure shift our perspectives as do joy and triumphs. At any moment, on any given day, we can be friends, competitors, or enemies. We can be generous or stingy, loving or petty, helpful or untrustworthy.

Lisa See

#35. I have a whole life to tell; I have nothing left to lose and few to offend.

Lisa See

#36. Could love be strong enough to outlast death not once but three times?

Lisa See

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

Lisa See

#38. A book is one kind of an art form and a film is a different art form. I think as a writer you just have to say, well the book is one thing, and the film is a completely different one.

Lisa See

#39. Men are so sure of themselves, and they have such courage and conviction. They believe-truly believe- that they can make things happen just by speaking the words, and in many cases they can.

Lisa See

#40. When you don't have much, having less isn't so bad.

Lisa See

#41. I think all women have a friend who at some point dumped them or betrayed them or deeply disappointed them. And at the same time all women have a friend who they dumped or betrayed or hurt in some way. That's universal in women's friendships.

Lisa See

#42. Give a low man one ounce of power and he'll throw ten thousand pounds of bricks on your head.

Lisa See

#43. And one of the interesting things about bound feet is that they never age.

Lisa See

#44. The greatest calling of all is to have a literary life.

Lisa See

#45. I've come to believe that part of lovesickness comes from this conflict between control and desire. In love we have no control. Our hearts and minds are tormented, teased, enticed and delighted by the overwhelming strength of emotions that make us try to forget the real world.

Lisa See

#46. A dragon doesn't surrender. A dragon fights fate. This is not some loud, roaring feeling. It feels more like someone blew on an ember and found a slight orange glow.

Lisa See

#47. Grace put her purse on the floor. "My mother says you must never do that," Ruby chastised. "Mine too," I agreed. "Do you want all your money to run out of your purse?

Lisa See

#48. In my life, no three miles have been flat and no three days have had sun. I've been brave in the past, but now I'm beyond devastated. My grief is like dense clouds that cannot be dispersed. I can't think beyond the blackness of my clothes and heart.

Lisa See

#49. Some of what I am doing when I am researching is looking for things people in my family have done and finding out what those things mean, why they did those things and seeing how I fit into them.

Lisa See

#50. I don't really know anything about the movie business, even though I've lived in Los Angeles my whole life - somehow I've never bumped into it.

Lisa See

#51. What the body knows and what the mind chooses to believe are two different things, after all.

Lisa See

#52. No matter what you're feeling or how desperate you become, always take a moral position. If you do that, God will watch over you.

Lisa See

#53. You make choices that are good and sound, but the gods have other plans for you.

Lisa See

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

Lisa See

#55. 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.

Lisa See

#56. And often it would be a woman who was in her 70s or 80s who would win the beauty contest, because bound feet never age.

Lisa See

#57. She brags that she once earned one

Lisa See

#58. 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.

Lisa See

#59. How can we not create a fantasy in our minds when the reality is so hard?

Lisa See

#60. People are shaped by the earth and water around them.

Lisa See

#61. Nothing in the world is permanent. The only permanent thing is impermanence.

Lisa See

#62. Nu shu means women's writing. And it was a secret writing system that was invented by women, used by women and kept a secret by women in one very remote county in China for a thousand years. It's the only language that was invented and used by women to have been found anywhere in the world.

Lisa See

#63. It's fair to say I don't know what I'm doing. I like to plot my life and proceed carefully, but life doesn't always follow a plan.

Lisa See

#64. Danseuse routine and my fame grew. I could walk into a

Lisa See

#65. All women on earth
and men, too for that matter
hope for the kind of love that transforms us, raises us up out of the everyday, & gives us the courage to survive our little deaths: the heartache of unfulfilled dreams, of career and personal disappointments, of broken love affairs.

Lisa See

#66. I remember a song we used to sing, "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean." But I thought it was, "Columbus, Jump in the Ocean.

Lisa See

#67. Let those who believe, believe. Let those who doubt, doubt.

Lisa See

#68. Everything always returns to the beginning.

Lisa See

#69. As I speak, I'm reminded of the old saying that diseases go in through the mouth, disasters come out of the mouth, meaning that words can be like bombs themselves.

Lisa See

#70. You can't learn about living unless you live. You can't live unless you take a chance; and your living is limited by the chances you take.

Lisa See

#71. recommended to us because he sees lots of

Lisa See

#72. Poetry is on earth to make you serene, not corrupt your mind, thoughts,or emotions

Lisa See

#73. What was the purpose of being wrapped like a present if you had no feelings for the person you were being given to?

Lisa See

#74. You are very smart. You must be very well educated. You are very pretty. You must be very rich because you're a writer.

Lisa See

#75. We may look and act modern in many ways, but we can't escape what we are ... obedient chinese daughters.

Lisa See

#76. I didn't know you would be here last night, but you were. We can't fight fate. Instead, we must accept that fate has given us a special opportunity.

Lisa See

#77. My hardcover sales are 17% down in books but up 400% in electronics.

Lisa See

#78. It's hard for a snake to go back to Hell once its had a taste of Heaven.

Lisa See

#79. The lotus symbolizes purity, because it rises out of the mud but looks pristine.

Lisa See

#80. We were to be like long vines with entwined roots, like trees that stand a thousand years, like a pair of mandarin ducks mated for life

Lisa See

#81. You can always count on people to crowded your party when you're in glory but you should never dream of people sending you charcoal in the cold.

Lisa See

#82. Hyacinth bean and papayas, long vines, deep roots. Palm trees outside the garden walls, with deep roots, stand a thousand years.

Lisa See

#83. Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.

Lisa See

#84. A single spark is not enough to warm a room nor is a single seed enough to grow a fruitful crop. Deep love - true heart love - must grow

Lisa See

#85. That I had been shallow, stubborn, and selfish did not alter the gravity and stupidity of what I had done. I had made the greatest mistake for a woman literate in nu shu: I had not considered texture, context, and shades of meaning.

Lisa See

#86. The Four Virtues
virtue, demeanor, speech, and work.

Lisa See

#87. You're leaving, "she said, rising to her feet. "I knew it was coming."
"How?"
"I'm your mother. You're the breath of my lungs and the beat of my heart. I know you very well.

Lisa See

#88. What stays with me most is a general sense of loss, unease, and longing for the past that cannot be relieved.

Lisa See

#89. When the sun is shining, think of the time it won't be, because even when you're sitting in your house with the doors shut, misfortune can fall from above.

Lisa See

#90. I would rather be married to broken jade than flawless clay

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#91. In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.

Lisa See

#92. When you do things in a soft way, you make the other people believe they've thought up something to do for you, when actually you're directing them. Later, Ruth

Lisa See

#93. When in the world did anyone die from a dream?

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#94. People come in and out of our lives, and the true test of friendship is whether you can pick back up right where you left off the last time you saw each other.

Lisa See

#95. 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.

Lisa See

#96. Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.

Lisa See

#97. But why bother trying to turn a monkey into a goat?

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#98. 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.

Lisa See

#99. But then this is how it is for women everywhere. You experience one lapse in conscience, in how low you think you'll go, in what you'll accept, and pretty soon you're at the bottom

Lisa See

#100. The fear of death was a powerful aphrodisiac.

Lisa See