48 Quotes by Thanhha Lai

Should 'sleep' be plural? No, sleep is an idea, like love, no s. So many decisions in a single simple sentence. Exhausting, this elaborate dance of words.

Y'all have a song?'H nods. 'Bất-tơ-phơ-lai de-lồ.''Butterfly yellow? You mean yellow butterfly.'H starts to explain but pulls out her notebook. The most prepared notetaker on earth.Bướm = butterfly, vàng = yellow.

Then by chance Mother learnssponsors prefer thosewhose application say "Christians."Just like thatMother amends our faith,saying all beliefsare pretty much the same.

Do not waste....Don't waste the vegetable-washing water, splash it on the grapefruit tree instead....Don't waste anything made of glass or plastic because glass and plastic can be reused ad nauseam....Don't waste...a string for retying, a rubber band for conquering dry noodles or hair, rice bags for dishcloths, fish bones for fertilizer....Anything that comes out of the earth must be returned to the earth...."If everyone uses more than their share, how can the earth support us?"

I tell you of loss, my child, so you will listen, slowly, and know that in life every emotion is fated to rear itself within your being. Don't judge it proper or ugly. It's simply there and yours. When you should happen to cry, then cry, knowing that just as easily you will laugh again and cry again. Your feelings will enter the currents of your core and there they shall remain

We pretend the monsoon has come early.In the distancebombsexplode like thunder,slashes lighten the sky,gunfirefalls like rain.Distant yet within ears, within eyes.Not that far away after all.

One cannot justify warunless each side flaunts its ownblind conviction.

In the distancebombsexplode like thunder,slasheslighten the sky,gunfirefalls like rain

South Vietnam no longer exists.One woman tries to throwherself overboard,screaming that without a countryshe cannot live.