Top 51 Quotes by Amy Tan

I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water.

I saw my mother in a different light. We all need to do that. You have to be displaced from what's comfortable and routine, and then you get to see things with fresh eyes, with new eyes.

I started a second novel seven times and I had to throw them away.

I am an American, steeped in American values. But I know on an emotional level what it means to be of the Chinese culture.

The forbidden things were a great influence on my life. I was forbidden from reading A Catcher in the Rye.

I didn't fear failure. I expected failure.

My parents told me I would become a doctor and then in my spare time I would become a concert pianist. So, both my day job and my spare time were sort of taken care of.

I have a writer's memory which makes everything worse than maybe it actually was.

I don't steer clear of genres. I simply haven't steered myself toward some of them.

It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.