Top 100 Yan Quotes
#1. The Master said, "What a worthy man was Yan Hui! Living in a narrow alley, subsisting upon meager bits of rice and water - other people could not have borne such hardship, and yet it never spoiled Hui's joy. What a worthy man was Hui!"
(Analects 6.11)
Confucius
#2. Mo Yan is the Chinese equivalent of the Soviet Russian apparatchik writer Mikhail Sholokhov: a patsy of the regime.
Salman Rushdie
#3. The day after I became king, S'yan offered a single piece of wisdom. 'Power lies not in what a king does, but in what his subjects believe he might do.' This was profound. For it meant that the majesty of kings lay in their mystique... not in their might.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
#4. How're we gonna bring the big hag round?" said Big Yan.
"I heard where ye has to put someone's heid between their legs," said Rob doubtfully.
Daft Wullie sighed and drew his sword. "Sounds a wee bit drastic tae me," he said, "but if someone will help me hold her steady-
Terry Pratchett
#5. Wullie! Big Yan! Come quick!' she yelled. 'He willnae tak' a drink! I think he's deid!
Terry Pratchett
#6. I wonder if this is it. If I have finally flown too far from home. I think of Ramonda and Ororo. Zuri and W'Kabi. Father and S'yan. But above all, I think of you. and I think of dying out here, of drifting out here, in search of but far away from you.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
#7. In truth, this was a bad thing that Yan Chang had done, telling me my mother's story. Secrets are kept from children, a lid on top of the soup kettle, so they do not boil over with too much truth. After
Amy Tan
#8. Happy Valentine's day sir! Next year, happy anniversary na yan ha.
Toni Gonzaga
#9. We cannae just rush in, ye ken."
"Point o' order, Big Man. Ye can just rush in. We always just rush in."
"Aye, Big Yan, point well made. But ye gotta know where ye're just gonna rush in. Ye cannae just rush in anywhere. It looks bad, havin' to rush oout again straight awa'.
Terry Pratchett
#10. I do not believe in this command leadership. Dangerous doctrine 'yan ha. Because you cannot know everything your men do.
Teodoro A. Agoncillo
#11. Everyone keeps looking on their defects. It's not like everyone's perfect, we all are are ugly and at the same time beautiful. It's just how we should carry and believe in ourselves. Nasa attitude yan, wala sa hitsura
HaveYouSeenThisGirL
#12. Mo Yan is a writer who, defiantly in the face of those who wish his work were less cartoonish and more straightforward in its political meanings, continues to sing his own peculiar and alluring song.
Dwight Garner
#13. And yet at Yan'an, Mao said that art and literature were crucial to revolution. Conversely, he warned, art and literature could also be tools of domination. Art
Viet Thanh Nguyen
#14. The problem with a lot of Chinese is that they put up divisions between Taiwanese, Hong Kong natives, mainlanders. We are never united. I really hope that the Chinese can be more united.
Martin Yan
#15. People who don't travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what's in front of them. Those people cannot accept new things because all they know is where they live.
Martin Yan
#16. The cliche that sea dry up and rocks rot away, but the heart never changes is nothing but a beautiful fantasy.
Mo Yan
#17. Glory, causes, careers, and love mean nothing on an empty stomach. Because of food, I lost my self-respect; because of food, I suffered the humiliation of a lowly cur; and because of food I took up creative writing, with a vengeance.
Mo Yan
#19. I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognised by the world.
Mo Yan
#20. When you have a good stock, you can make a good soup.
Martin Yan
#21. I can represent my culture while helping not only the Chinese-American community, but also the community at large.
Martin Yan
#22. Heavens never seals off all the exits
Mo Yan
#23. Are women really wonderful things? Maybe they are. Yes, women are wonderful things, but when all is said and done, they aren't really things
Mo Yan
#24. I think writers write for their consciences, they write for their own true audiences, for their souls.
Mo Yan
#25. Only by recalling a dream is an insomniac sure he's slept.
Mo Yan
#26. A writer should bury his thoughts deep and convey them through the characters in his novel.
Mo Yan
#27. A writer's place in a nation's literary history cannot be judged by whether or not he is capable of writing a book as heavy as a brick. That must rest on his contributions to the development and enrichment of that nation's language.
Mo Yan
#28. Where there's life, death is inevitable. Dying's easy; it's living that's hard. The harder it gets, the stronger the will to live. And the greater the fear of death, the greater the struggle to keep on living.
Mo Yan
#29. People who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature.
Mo Yan
#30. A writer should always bravely face life, risking death and mutilation in order to dethrone an emperor.
Mo Yan
#31. Wind, then rain, and then the blue sky.
Mo Yan
#32. I heard so many stories from Gaomi's peasants that I had an irrepressible urge to write them down. Today, Gaomi's peasants know that they have become famous around the world through my writings, but I think they are a little puzzled by this.
Mo Yan
#34. I have a lot of cooking tools. In fact I have a whole drawer full of knives. Cooking tools, especially cutlery, are my toys.
Martin Yan
#35. For complexity does not inevitably heighten a story's verisimilitude, or its power to convince; sometimes simplicity and economy make for a more vigorous exposition, propelling the drama forward.
Yan Lianke
#36. So when I do Chinese cooking, I mix everything together, then the kids have to eat their vegetables. They won't have the patience to pick them out.
Martin Yan
#37. My grandmother once told me that while there is no suffering a person cannot endure, there is plenty of good fortune one can never hope to enjoy. I believe that.
Mo Yan
#38. No person writes to win awards.
Mo Yan
#39. When I retire or pass away, I will be able to look back and say that this has been an exciting life. That's all that matters.
Martin Yan
#40. You can do almost anything with soup stock, it's like a strong foundation. When you have the right foundation, everything tastes good.
Martin Yan
#41. I think a lot of times it's not money that's the primary motivation factor; it's the passion for your job and the professional and personal satisfaction that you get out of doing what you do that motivates you.
Martin Yan
#42. The act of giving voice to this spiritual suffering is, in my view, the sacred duty of the writer.
Mo Yan
#43. In general I love to eat anything. I enjoy anything that is well prepared, a good spaghetti, lasagna, taco, steak, sushi, refried beans.
Martin Yan
#44. Dear brother," Number Two replied, "I can eat shit, I just don't like the taste.
Mo Yan
#45. I also have a lot of preserved foods, things that will keep for a long time like dried fish, seaweed or lotus seed.
Martin Yan
#46. I sometimes think that there is a link between the decline in humanity and the increase in prosperity and comfort. Property and comfort are what people seek, but the costs to character are often terrifying.
Mo Yan
#47. Why is America such a great country. It is because we stand united.
Martin Yan
#48. A writer should express criticism and indignation at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, but we should not use one uniform expression.
Mo Yan
#49. The only thing that counts is if you know how to prepare your ingredients. Even if with the best and freshest ingredients in the world, if your dish is tasteless or burnt, it's ruined.
Martin Yan
#50. The dead are noble, the living worthless.
Mo Yan
#51. One of the biggest problems in literature is the lack of subtlety.
Mo Yan
#52. As a child who grew up in a grassy field, enjoying little formal education, I know virtually nothing about literary theories and have had to rely solely upon my own experiences and intuitive understanding of the world to write.
Mo Yan
#53. A person can change the way he talks, but not the way he sneezes. A person can turn single-fold eyelids into double folds, but the greatest plastic surgeon alive cannot change the look in a man's eyes.
Mo Yan
#54. Writing is the equivalent to a striptease.
Kit Yan
#55. Because normally with Western cuisine, you'll serve vegetables separate from the meat, so kids will eat the meat and never touch the vegetables.
Martin Yan
#56. At thirteen, when I arrived in Hong Kong after leaving China, I made a living by working in a restaurant.
Martin Yan
#57. I'd discovered that the range of beauty in breasts is wide; while one should never lightly say that a pair is ugly, one can easily say that a pair of breasts is beautiful. Hedgehogs are beautiful sometimes; so are baby pigs.
Mo Yan
#58. Well, you know, if you get into the profession because you think you can make a lot of money, you can never become successful.
Martin Yan
#60. First of all, I can't really claim to be a great chef.
Martin Yan
#61. Some may want to shout on the street, but we should tolerate those who hide in their rooms and use literature to voice their opinions.
Mo Yan
#62. I remember when I was in college, I used to watch Julia Child's cooking show during dinner and joke with my roommates about becoming a TV chef.
Martin Yan
#63. If an earthworm in the ground won't starve to death, then neither will we, the working class." He
Mo Yan
#64. I've never considered myself a celebrity or even part of the entertainment business. I'm a cooking teacher.
Martin Yan
#65. I am just a normal professional with a great job and a great life.
Martin Yan
#66. Just like if you were brought up on a farm, you would most likely carry on your father's business as a farmer; I was brought up in the kitchen and ended up becoming a chef.
Martin Yan
#67. I think being famous is more of a hindrance, a constraint, than just letting yourself be free.
Martin Yan
#68. I write about my region, the countryside in which I grew up.
Mo Yan
#69. A writer writes what he knows, in ways that are natural to him.
Mo Yan
#70. I have always been independent.
Mo Yan
#71. When people are driven nearly mad, they are imbued with superhuman strength and are capable of almost supernatural deeds.
Mo Yan
#72. Chinese culture has a lot of virtues that are tremendously valuable to not only us as Asian-Americans, but also the world in general.
Martin Yan
#73. Finally, she mused that human existence is as brief as the life of autumn grass, so what was there to fear from taking chances with your life?
Mo Yan
#74. And the chewing and swallowing imbue me with an unadulterated sense of donkey delight.
Mo Yan
#75. As long as the food is well prepared and not overdone, I think it tastes good. It doesn't matter if it's Chinese, Japanese, anything.
Martin Yan
#76. Some people never contribute anything positive to society, they may even drain our resources, but most of us try to do something better, to give back.
Martin Yan
#77. When Communism has been realized, everyone will be a novelist.
Mo Yan
#78. You don't have to show people how successful you are.
Martin Yan
#79. Possibly because I've lived so much of my life in difficult circumstances, I think I have a more profound understanding of life.
Mo Yan
#80. For a country boy, poor as I was, whose constant worry was to be able to have enough to eat, the Army guaranteed one's survival.
Mo Yan
#81. There are people who walk mules and people walk horses, but I never thought there were people who walk cops.
Mo Yan
#82. When literature exists, perhaps we do not notice how important it is, but when it does not exist, our lives become coarsened and brutal. For this reason, I am proud of my profession, but also aware of its importance.
Mo Yan
#83. The hoopla, the applause, the praises have never excited me.
Martin Yan
#84. What a shame for a man like him to be born during peacetime. If he'd been born only a few decades earlier, he'd have worn the mantle of hero,
Mo Yan
#85. I don't like to waste anything. Any food left over from the night before is always eaten the next day.
Martin Yan
#86. When someone forces me to do something I don't do it.
Mo Yan
#87. Soy sauce is really a multi-purpose seasoning.
Martin Yan
#88. Loneliness and hunger were my fortunes of creation.
Mo Yan
#89. My works are Chinese literature, which is part of world literature. They show the life of Chinese people as well as the country's unique culture and folk customs.
Mo Yan
#90. If I could only have one type of food with me, I would bring soy sauce. The reason being that if I have soy sauce, I can flavor a lot of things.
Martin Yan
#91. Do what others do not do, Believe in what others do not believe, Feel what others cant feel, Become what others cannot be
Yan Antropov
#92. Always start with the freshest ingredients.
Martin Yan
#93. A sudden cloud formation of birds was swallowed up by the moon, and he was just as suddenly penned in by four walls - the demons' pen.
Mo Yan
#94. A lot of people don't enjoy their job, they may even hate it, but I am lucky enough to be able to make a living through my passion.
Martin Yan
#95. Happiness is within. It has nothing to do with how much applause you get or how many people praise you. Happiness comes when you believe that you have done something truly meaningful.
Martin Yan
#96. Anyone that has come to America past the age of eighteen will be able to understand when I say that you can never shake your accent.
Martin Yan
#97. When you enjoy what you do, work becomes play.
Martin Yan
#98. Always choose life. A demeaned life is better than the best death.
Mo Yan
#99. I know what real courage is, and I understand true compassion.
Mo Yan
#100. I am also well aware that literature only has a minimal influence on political disputes or economic crises in the world, but its significance to human beings is ancient.
Mo Yan
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