272 Quotes by Lisa See

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.

Fall down eight times, stand up nine. For me, this saying is less about the dead paving the way for future generations than it is for the women of Jeju. We suffer and suffer and suffer, but we also keep getting up. We keep living. You would not be here if you weren't brave. Now you need to be braver still.

Every woman who enters the sea carries a coffin on her back,” she warned the gathering. “In this world, in the undersea world, we tow the burdens of a hard life. We are crossing between life and death every day.”These traditional words were often repeated on Jeju, but we all nodded somberly as though hearing them for the first time.“When we go to the sea, we share the work and the danger,” Mother added. “We harvest together, sort together, and sell together, because the sea itself is communal.

You are a haenyeo! Never for one moment believe you are unworthy.

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.

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

Finally, the nima returns to our plane. "Wrong cannot be hidden. An outside spirit is insulted because Deh-ja made a mistake in one of her ancestor offerings.

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

Other kids get white rice, but the food you give us makes it look like we're living a subsistence life.” “I buy white rice for the New Year's Festival,” I said, stung. Then, defensively, “I often put barley in your lunch –”“Which is even more embarrassing, because that means we're really poor.” “What a lucky child you are to say that. You don't know what poor means –