Amy Tan

I was intelligent enough to make up my own mind. I not only had freedom of choice, I had freedom of expression. ↗

— Amy Tan

#enough #expression #freedom #freedom of expression #had

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. ↗

— Amy Tan

#comes #desperation #inspiration #kindness #knows

I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese. ↗

— Amy Tan

#chinese #english #got #her #i

I wanted to write stories for myself. At first it was purely an aesthetic thing about craft. I just wanted to become good at the art of something. And writing was very private. ↗

— Amy Tan

#aesthetic #art #become #craft #first

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. ↗

— Amy Tan

#came #find #grateful #i #ideas

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

— Amy Tan

#because #being #ever #life #luxury

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

— Amy Tan

#both #conformity #rebellion #success #you

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

— Amy Tan

#catcher in the rye #forbidden #great #i #influence

Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power. ↗

— Amy Tan

#chilly #conjure #could #feelings #had

You can get sucked into the idea that, 'Gosh, this is impressive. Maybe I should do this. It will look good.' Or 'I'll write like this because it will impress that critic.' ↗

— Amy Tan

#critic #get #good #gosh #i