Quotes from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“Everybody says women are like water. I think it's because water is the source of life, and it adapts itself to its environment. Like women, water also gives of itself wherever it goes to nurture life....”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“I received no praise for the rescue of this girl, only criticism for "moving the troops about and stirring up the people" and wasting the radio station's time and money. I was shaken by these complaints. A young girl had been in danger and yet going to her rescue was seen as "exhausting the people and draining the treasury". Just what was a woman's life worth in China?”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“(As a "grandchild of a capitalist household":)
At school, I was forbidden to take singing and dancing lessons with the other girls because I was not to "pollute" the arena of the revolution. Even though I was short-sighted, I was not allowed to sit in the front row in class because the best places were reserved for the children born to peasants, workers or soldiers; they were deemed to have 'straight roots and red shoots'. Similarly, I was forbidden to stand in the front row during PE lessons, though I was the smallest in the class, because the place nearest the teacher were for the 'next generation of the revolution'.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“(While interviewing The University Student:)
'Oh, poor Xinran. You haven't even got the various categories of women straight. How can you possibly hope to understand men? Let me tell you. When men have been drinking, they come out with a set of definitions for women. Lovers are "swordfish", tasty but with sharp bones. "Personal secretaries" are "carp", the longer you "stew" them, the more flavour they have. Other men's wives are "Japanese puffer fish", trying a mouthful could be the end of you, but risking death is a source of pride.'
'And what about their own wives?'
'Salt cod, because it keeps for a long time. When there is no other food, salt cod is cheap and convenient.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“(While interviewing at the Hunan women's prison:)
'I have lived with several men, and let them amuse themselves with me. Because of that, I have been sent to two labour reeducation camps and been sentenced to prison twice. (...) When people curse me for having no shame, I don't get angry. All the Chinese care about is "face", but they don't understand how their faces are linked to the rest of their bodies.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“(While interviewing The University Student:)
'Good Chinese women are conditioned to behave in a soft, meek manner, and they bring this behaviour to bed. As a result, their husbands say that they have no sex appeal, and the women submit to oppression, convinced the fault is their own. They must bear the pain of menstruation and childbirth, and work like men to keep the family when their husbands don't earn enough. The men pin pictures of beautiful women above the bed to arouse themselves, while their wives blame themselves for their care-worn bodies.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“Writing is a kind of repository and can help create a space for the accommodation of new thoughts and feelings. If you don't write these stories down, your heart will be filled up and broken by them.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“No matter how revolutionary people were, he said, they could not live without books. Without books, we would not understand the world; without books, we could not develop; without books, nature could not serve humanity.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“Men want a woman who is a virtuous wife, a good mother, and can do all the housework like a maid. Outside the home, she should be attractive and cultivated, and be a credit to him. In bed, she must be a nymphomaniac. What is more, Chinese men also need their women to manage their finances and earn a lot of money, so they can mingle with the rich and powerful. Modern”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“Just what are women, exactly? Should men be classed in the same species as women? Why are they so different? Books and films may say it is better to be a woman, but I cannot believe it. I have never felt it to be true, and I never will.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“Mentre scrivo queste righe a Sydney, una splendida coppia di pappagalli verdi con il petto arancione è accovacciata sul tetto dell'edificio accanto e sta nutrendo il proprio cucciolo.
Se gli uccelli possono provare un simile sentimento e non abbandonare mai le loro creature, com'è possibile che degli esseri umani rinuncino ripetutamente ai loro figli?”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“أما الفلسفة التي تملكها النساء؟
ما السعادة بالنسبة للمرأة؟
وما الذي يجعل المرأة امرأة صالحة؟”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“عندما نجول داخل ذكرياتنا فإننا نفتح بذلك بابا على الماضي، الطريق في داخله ملئ بالأغصان وتختلف الدرب فيه كلمرة.”
― Xinran, quote from The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

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“17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
― The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, quote from The LDS Scriptures: Unabridged Complete King James Version Holy Bible /The Book of Mormon / Doctrine and Covenants / The Pearl of Great Price

“Our simple daily decisions can become our best friend or our worst enemy. They can draw us towards our goals or send us orbiting into a galaxy far, far away. These are the days of our lives. We are offered choices every day; sickness or health, poverty or wealth, happiness or misery, knowledge or ignorance, to jump or to wait, to grow or to die, faith or doubt, for better or worse. Everything in your life exists because you made a series of decisions. Each decision, positive or negative, starts a behavior that over time becomes a habit. It is the little things that we put off doing that cumulatively make an enormous difference–in the end results.”
― Mary Maina, quote from The Proverbs 31 Lady: Unveiling Her Secrets Before Saying I Do

“A man is lying under machine-gun fire on a street in an embattled city. He looks at the pavement and sees a very amusing sight: the cobblestones are standing upright like the quills of a porcupine. The bullets hitting against their edges displace and tilt them. Such moments in the consciousness of a man judge all poets and philosophers. Let us suppose, too, that a certain poet was the hero of the literary cafes, and wherever he went was regarded with curiosity and awe. Yet his poems, recalled in such a moment, suddenly seem diseased and highbrow. The vision of the cobblestones is unquestionably real, and poetry based on an equally naked experience could survive triumphantly that judgment day of man’s illusions.”
― Czesław Miłosz, quote from The Captive Mind

“No matter where I look, my walls are crumbling, and this damned girl keeps presenting me with the most dangerous element of all.
Hope.”
― Lauren Layne, quote from Broken

“Acım tıpkı organlarımı kemiren bir yaratık gibi hala canlı.Ölmeyecek.Ölmeyi reddediyor.Onu oraya sen koydun, sen ektin, embriyoya onca yılın besinini verdin.Ve sonra yürüyüp gittin.

Bana iyilik yaptığını söyledin.Şimdi ayrılmak daha iyi, eğer bu iş uzarsa sadece daha fazla acı verecek, dedin.

Acı çekmenin ne olduğunu bilmiyorsun…”
― Tess Gerritsen, quote from Presumed Guilty

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

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