Kien Nguyen · 343 pages
Rating: (1.8K votes)
“Don't let this anger ruin your life any more than it already has. If you want to every achieve happiness, don't dwell on the past. Instead, start living. What is the point of obsessing that has already happened, and that you cannot change? Live! And be merry.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“Hit me again, and I'll report you to the authorities. Follow me to my bed one more time, and I swear to the gods, I'll search for the most painful way to murder you.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“I can't go to America. I don't want to go to any foreign land where I don't speak the language or know the customs. I'd rather die here by the Vietcong's hands, among my ancestors, than live like a ghost among strangers. You go!”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“In all of my years doing this job, I have never given the drug to anyone over three months pregnant; not once, because everybody listens to me, except you.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“No longer did she look like a shy little maid who was trained to censor her thought before it reached her mouth. These past few days had turned her into a reserved yet intelligent young woman.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“Lying half-asleep in his embrace, I looked up and saw on his face the same expression I saw on countless lonely faces every day. It was the homesick look of the children who were lost in the chaos of warfare, witnessing death and disaster, longing for a meaningful touch.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“Come up here. Tell us your story.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“Take a close look at your life if you dare. Do you understand why you allow your children to harass mine? Jealousy, that's why. You are jealous of the fact that all of your fourteen children could never measure up in Daddy's eyes as much as one half-breed of mine. It hurts, doesn't it? Knowing that your children can never be good enough. But how could they? Just look at them, and the parents that gave life to them. I sincerely hope that I never have to see your face again.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“In the sallow afternoon, I watched her get dressed.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“Never had I beheld such despair.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
“I don't have anything to give you, except to show you a way to better yourself.”
― Kien Nguyen, quote from The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood
Kien Nguyen
Born place: in Nhatrang, Viet Nam
Born date January 1, 1967
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“How strangely distributed are our scruples. When they are evenly spread across our lives, we are judged good people. Mine, unfortunately, tend to bunch up.”
― Arthur Phillips, quote from The Tragedy of Arthur
“The world is holy. Nature is holy. The body is holy. Sexuality is holy. The imagination is holy. Divinity is immanent in nature; it is within you as well as without. Most spiritual paths ultimately lead people to the understanding of their own connection to the divine. While human beings are often cut off from experiencing the deep and ever-present connection between themselves and the universe, that connection can often be regained through ceremony and community. The energy you put out into the world comes back.”
― Margot Adler, quote from Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
“M got into difficulties. Somebody – and since the client was dead it wasn’t clear who – didn’t like his two paintings.”
― quote from M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio
“There was something about our silence that made me comfortable. He wasn't talking to me, but I didn't feel ignored. I felt we were part of the same moment, and it didn't need to be defined.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List
“Salt Lake City has a monument to the seagulls, which in 1848 swooped down from the sky to devour a swarm of locusts, thereby saving Utah crops. They were known affectionately as the “Mormon Air Force.” Someday New Orleans should likewise honor the dragonfly. With their large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and outstretched bodies, dragonflies frighten most people. On Tuesday dragonflies blanketed New Orleans, hovering just inches above the smelly floodwater, eating every mosquito in sight.”
― Douglas Brinkley, quote from The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
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