Author

My mother left behind three daughters when she went to America and started a new life. I certainly felt abandoned when my father died of a brain tumour; I felt he had abandoned me to this terrible, volatile mother and I had no protection.

From Amy Tan

I read academic books on courtesan culture at the turn-of-the century in Shanghai such as Gail Hershatter's 'The Gender of Memory'. The diaries were mostly in the form of letters from courtesans to a lover who had disappeared or taken their savings.

From Amy Tan

Mothers have this huge influence, and I feel like they're always teaching us from the day we're born what to be afraid of, what to be cautious of, what we should like, and what we should look like.

From Amy Tan

My mother always thought if her mother hadn't left her, she would have been happy. All the problems she had never would have happened.

From Amy Tan

That's part of the character of Shanghainese people. They're good negotiators, they're very persistent, and you grow up in an atmosphere like that - very competitive. That becomes part of your personality: Shanghai personality becomes part of yours. Just like New Yorkers - they're often like that.

From Amy Tan

I'm usually woken by a vibration on my up-band. It's the gradual vibration for about ten seconds, and then the chimes of my blue light. It's just a way to wake gently. It all gently puts me into awake-mode. I play music off of my Sonos playlist. 'The Rachmaninoff Concerto 3 in D-minor', 1st movement.

From Amy Tan

For books I want to keep reading, it's definitely the voice. It must be a voice I've never heard before, and it must have its own particular intelligence. By 'voice,' I don't mean vernacular. It has to have its own particular history and world that it inhabits.

From Amy Tan

My grandmother. She's someone I never met, and I would've loved to have met her. She's been a huge influence on our entire family, not just me. She is a mystery. It's not clear exactly what about her is truth and myth.

From Amy Tan

In the mid-1800s, they were known also as 'singsong houses,' and the courtesans were actually master musicians.

From Amy Tan

I was shocked, and I ended up contacting three academics to find out if it could possibly be that my grandmother was a courtesan.

From Amy Tan

Amy Tan

Notable Quotes

Authors with Similar Views

Rebecca MacKinnon

Tess Gerritsen

Kevin Kwan

Marie Helvin

Gail Carson Levine

Authors with Opposing Views

Ben Carson

Penn Jillette

Robert Battle

Robert Bringhurst

Robert Kiyosaki