Top 51 Quotes by Amy Tan

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

I'd like to be more forgiving. There are times when I've had a hard time forgiving people who have betrayed me.

I would find myself laughing and wondering where these ideas came from. You can call it imagination, I suppose. But I was grateful for wherever they came from.

In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

She said 'I'm by commission. You don't have to pay anything until you sell anything.' I said, 'Well fine. You want to be my agent and not make anything.' I thought, 'Boy, is she dumb.'

It's both rebellion and conformity that attack you with success.

Placing on writers the responsibility to represent a culture is an onerous burden.

My mother said I was a clingy kid until I was about four. I also remember that from the age of eight she and I fought almost every day.

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

There are a lot of people who think that's what's needed to be successful is always being right, always being careful, always picking the right path.