Maxine Hong Kingston Quotes

She was one of the stars, a bright dot in blackness, without home, without a companion, in eternal cold and silence.

Long ago in China, knot-makers tied string into buttons and frogs, and rope into bell pulls. There was one knot so complicated that it blinded the knot-maker. Finally an emperor outlawed this cruel kn...

But the men—hungry, greedy, tired of planting in dry soil—had been forced to leave the village in order to send food-money home.

Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure. Then I get bitter: I am not loved enough to be supported. That I am not a burden has to compensate for the sad envy when I look at women loved e...

If only I could let my mother know the list, she —and the world—would become more like me, and I would never be alone again.

As they walked back to the laundry, Brave Orchid showed her sister where to buy the various groceries and how to avoid Skid Row. On days when you are not feeling safe, walk around it. But you can walk...

The work of preservation demands that the feelings playing about in one’s guts not be turned into action.

Adultery, perhaps only a mistake during good times, became a crime when the village needed food.

And I had to get out of hating range.

When these pictures burst, the stars drew yet further apart. Black space opened. She got to her feet to fight better

Trong thời đại của sự hủy diệt, hãy tạo ra một điều gì đó. Một bài thơ. Một cuộc diễu hành. Một tình bạn. Một cộng đồng. Một địa điểm thuộc về tài sản chung. Một ngôi trường. Một lời hứa. Một nguyên t...

Because joy and life exist nowhere but the present.

The difference between mad people and sane people . . . is that sane people have variety when they talk-story. Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over.

How unlike a dead fish a live fish is.

I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.

My mother has told me once and for all the useful parts. She will add nothing unless powered by necessity, a riverbank that guides her life. She plants vegetable gardens rather than lawns; she carries...

No husband of mine will say, I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is. Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure. Then I get bitter: no...

Not many women got to live out the daydream of women—to have a room, even a section of a room, that only gets messed up when she messes it up herself.