Grace Lin · 282 pages
Rating: (28.3K votes)
“If you make happy those that are near, those that are far will come.”
“Whenever I see her, we laugh enough to last for the month. She's my best friend, and someday when we're old enough I'm going to talk her into staying here forever.”
“She's my friend, the boy said simply. That's who she is and that's enough for me. As Minli looked at the buffalo boy, aglow with happiness against his poor surroundings, she saw it was enough for him. More than enough, as the smile that kept curling up on his face told her.”
“Yes," Ba said sadly, "it is impossible. But it is not ridiculous.”
“You only lose what you cling to.”
“Bringing fortune to our house! Making Fruitless Mountain bloom! You're always wishing to do impossible things! Stop believing stories and stop wasting your time.”
“That is a question you have to ask the Old Man of the Moon.”
“Fortune was not a house full of gold and jade, but something much more.”
“Stories are not a waste of time”
“Impossible?" the goldfish man said. "Don't you see? Even fates written in the Book of Fortunes can be changed. How can anything be impossible?”
“For even in the misty light, the goldfish man could see her smiling a secret smile up to the sky to where the mountain meets the moon.”
“Minli suddenly thought of Ma and Ba. A wave of longing washed through her and a dryness caught in her throat that the tea could not moisten. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.”
“Do you remember the story I told you about the paper of happiness? And the secret, which was one word written over and over again? … I have thought a long time about what that word could have been,” Ba said. “Was it wisdom or honor? Love or truth? For a long time I liked to think that the word was kindness.”
Ma’s face remained hidden in Minli’s bed, but her sobs had stopped and Ba knew she was listening.
“But now,” Ba said, “I think, perhaps, the word was faith.”
“او سرانجام فهمیده بود که خنده و سرخوشی دخترش با داشتن لباسهای زیبا و جواهرات بیشتر نمیشد و شور و شادی، مثل هدیه ای بسته بندی شده در انتظار باز شدن، داخل خانه ی خودش بود!”
“Duncan spoke quietly: 'Lucilla, if you touch me again without my permission, I will try to kill you. I will try so hard that you very likely will have to kill me.”
“But the thing I’m finding out is some people don’t really appreciate it when you’r trying to be helpful.”
“The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature--all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal's behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes exinct.”
“I love you.” My heart almost stopped beating in my chest.
She hadn’t spoken those words since the last time I held her in my arms.
“And you did leave me. But... but you came back. No one’s ever come back. They leave me and that’s it. They want to leave me. You didn’t. And you came back.” I wanted to stand up and reach across the table and jerk her into my arms but I wasn’t sure I could stand up just yet. I needed to hear everything she had to say.
“Yes, I came back. My heart never left you.”
“I miss you.”
This time I stood up and walked around the table.
“I miss you. Every second of every day,” I whispered. Her eyes followed me until I was inches from her.
“I trust you.”
I needed more than that.
“You trust me,” I repeated.
She nodded and her hand came up and caressed the side of my arm.
“I want to try again.”
Those were the words I needed to hear.”
“When he spoke, there was an odd vulnerability to his deep voice. As if he were letting her peek inside one of the dark chambers of the heart he seemed so sure he didn’t possess.”
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