Leslie T. Chang · 420 pages
Rating: (6.6K votes)
“A person cannot grow up through happiness. Happiness makes a person shallow. It is only through suffering that we grow up, transform, and come to a better understanding of life.”
“The binders hinted at the reasons past relationships had gone sour. SEEKING A 28- TO 34-YEAR-OLD WITH AN OPEN PERSONALITY WHO DOESN'T GAMBLE. SEEKING A CULTIVATED PERSON NOT ADDICTED TO WINE AND WOMEN. An occasional brave soul would throw caution to the winds: SEEKING A 35- TO 45-YEAR-OLD. THE REST IS UP TO DESTINY.”
“SALES SPECIALIST. CAN EAT BITTERNESS AND ENDURE HARDSHIP.”
“In China, people from such humble backgrounds rarely spoke in public. But here they were, each person unapologetic and full of faith that her personal story was interesting.”
“If I only go to school, come out and do migrant work for a few years, then go home, marry and have children," Min said, "I might as well not have lived this whole life.”
“No one wanted to date a man who was only five feet three inches tall.”
“It isn’t very interesting,” my father said. “He just writes things like, ‘Today the Japanese army is closing in around the city.’ Stuff like that.”
“My grandfather came back, and his death bought the house at no. 6; half a century later it was turned into yet another journey to America. And that was fitting, because the history of a family begins when a person leaves home.”
“Even in the Moment of Our Earliest Kiss
Even in the moment of our earliest kiss,
When sighed the straitened bud into the flower,
Sat the dry seed of most unwelcome this;
And that I knew, though not the day and hour.
Too season-wise am I, being country-bred,
To tilt at autumn or defy the frost:
Snuffing the chill even as my fathers did,
I say with them, "What’s out tonight is lost."
I only hoped, with the mild hope of all
Who watch the leaf take shape upon the tree,
A fairer summer and a later fall
Than in these parts a man is apt to see,
And sunny clusters ripened for the wine:
I tell you this across the blackened vine.”
“But getting back to my old friend water, the thing of it is this: No matter how hot or how cold, no matter its state, its form, its qualities, or its color, each molecule of water still consists of no more than a single oxygen atom bonded to two sister atoms of hydrogen. It takes all three of them to make a blinding blizzard— or a thunderstorm, for that matter … or a puffy white cloud in a summer sky. O Lord, how manifold are thy works!”
“Governments might come and go, wars will reshape the Ununited Kingdoms many times. But companies will stay, and flourish. Show me any major even on this planet and I will show you the economic reason behind it. Commerce is all powerful, Miss Strange. Commerce rules our lives.”
“А паметта продължаваше да живее. Той виждаше сега не госпожа Оота, а залеза, който видя от прозореца на вагона, вече на път за в къщи, след нощта в камакурския хотел. Зад стъклото изплува очарователното очертание на храма Хоммон-дзи в Икегами. Слънцето — червено и кръгло като топка, бавно се спускаше от клон на клон. Короните бяха съвсем черни и релефно се очертаваха на фона на заревото. Провиращите се между клоните лъчи на залязващото слънце заслепяваха очите на Кикудзи и той ги затвори. И тогава у него се появи усещането, че хилядата бели жерави, изпърхали от розовата фурашики на Юкико и прелетели през багровочервения залез, влетяха под неговите плътно затворени клепачи.”
“Two people rarely see the same thing.”
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