Quotes from The Valley of Amazement

Amy Tan ·  589 pages

Rating: (34.3K votes)


“Hardships can harden even the best person.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“To save myself, I destroyed another, and in doing so, I destroyed myself.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“I, not anyone else can travel that road for you.             You must travel if by yourself.             It is not far. It is within reach.             Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.             Perhaps it is everywhere—on water and land.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Suffer more now, suffer less later.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“To keep false hopes is to prolong misery.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement



“The life we receive is not always what we choose.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Fate changes when you change your clothes.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Do you know what morals are Violet? They're other people's rules. Do you know what a conscience is? Freedom to use your own intelligence to determine what is right or wrong. You possess that freedom and no one can remove it from you”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Teddy once told me that it's natural that we feel alone, and that's because our hearts are different from others and we don't even know how. When we're in love, as if by magic, our different hearts come together perfectly toward the same desire. Eventually, the differences return, and then comes heartache and mending, and, in between, much loneliness and fear. If love remains despite the pain of those differences, it must be guarded as rare...”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“...I owed her a debt of gratitude. More than gratitude, much more.
I could finally see what had always been there. She had been more than an attendant, more than a friend, more than a sister. She had been a mother to me. She had worried, sought to protect me from danger, guided me toward the best. She had looked out for my future, assessed the worthiness of everyone to be in my life. And in that way, she had taken me as her purpose in life, the one who gave her meaning. I had a constant love all along. And in recognizing that, I felt moved to tears.
"How could you step out of my life?" I told her. "if you do don't join me, I will be lost. No one would worry about me as much as you. No one knows me better, knows my past and what this new life means. I should have told you a long time ago." I became teary-eyed. She kept her lips sealed, but her jaw was trembling. "You are the only loyal person in my life, the only one I can trust."
Tears fell from her eyes. "Now you know. I was always the only one."
"We love each other," I said with a light laugh. "In spite of all the trouble I've given you, you stayed with me. So it must be that you loved me like a mother.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement



“Even when I worked in that world, I still wanted love so strong that the man would have no interest in another woman. Maybe you will always be incapable of giving that kind of love. You tell me I want too much. And maybe I do. But like you and your imagination, I can't help but be that way.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Maybe the kind of love that would comfort me did not exist. Perhaps I expected too much of love and no one existed who could ever meet my unceasing and bottomless need for it.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“i'm not saying fate happens without blame. but when fate turns out well, everyone should forget the bad road that got us here.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“It was our fate and our natures, flawed and wounded, that brought us together - Violet Minturn”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Accept love when it is offered, Violet. Return love and not suspicion. Then you'll receive more. - Loyalty Tang”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement



“Whenever others disapprove of you, you must disregard them and be the only”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“The best life you can have as you get into old age is good food, good teeth to eat it with, and few worries when you go to bed at night.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Our love would be solace, companionship, and the mending of wounds.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Where did he go when he left us? I spied the new journal he had started using just last week and held it against my chest. This was who he was. But it also was not. It was sad and beautiful knowledge that a person cannot be found elsewhere but in his own spirit. No one could possess it.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Maybe all Americans who suffer from melancholy act as if they have gone mad. But I truly thought he might throw himself in the river, and I don't want his ghost visiting to keep telling me he's sorry.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement



“Why does love end so quickly and hatred last without end?”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“when fate turns out well, everyone should forget the bad road that got us here.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Quiero que nuestro amor sea tan grande que nos duela por dentro”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“A moment is not the same as time.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“I hope you don’t suffer forever from keeping love from your heart”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement



“Our meeting each other could not possibly be as random as two leaves from two trees being blown together.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Later they will remember those moments with you. But they are not memories of you, but the feeling they were immortal because you made them gods.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Forget about love. You will receive that many times, but none of it is lasting.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


“Anyone can have original style,” he countered. “And yet no one truly does. We’re influenced by those who came before us, beginning with the painters thousands of years ago who imitated nature.”
― Amy Tan, quote from The Valley of Amazement


About the author

Amy Tan
Born place: in Oakland, California, The United States
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