272 Quotes by Lisa See

I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one in the same.

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

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.

Joy doesn’t smart-tongue him. It’s not because he tries to control her as a proper Chinese father should or that she’s an obedient Chinese daughter. Instead, she’s like a pearl in his palm - forever precious; to Joy, he’s the solid ground on which she walks - forever steady and reliable.

How can the moon be scooped from the water's surface, or flowers be plucked from the void?

The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child.

If it is perfectly acceptable for a widow to disfigure herself or commit suicide to save face for her husband's family, why should a mother not be moved to extreme action by the loss of a child or children? We are their caretakers. We love them. We nurse them when they are sick. . . But no woman should live longer than her children. It is against the law of nature. If she does, why wouldn't she wish to leap from a cliff, hang from a branch, or swallow lye?

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

Everyone knows that part of the spirit descends to the afterworld, while part of it remains with the family, but we have a special belief about the spirit of a young woman who has died before her marriage that goes contrary to this. She comes back to prey upon other unmarried girls--not to scare them but to take them to the afterworld with her so she might have company.