Joy Luck Club Quotes:

In America nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gives you.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.254, Penguin

topic: America, Giving, Joy Luck Club

For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.142, Penguin

topic: Mother, Believe, Joy Luck Club

I discovered that maybe it was fate all along, that faith was just an illusion that somehow you're in control.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.121, Penguin

topic: Fate, Illusion, Joy Luck Club

And now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club: A Novel”, p.222, Penguin

topic: Blood, Chinese, Joy Luck Club

what you don't know, you don't miss

- Cecelia Ahern

source: Cecelia Ahern (2005). “Rosie Dunne”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

topic: Missing, Twists, Joy Luck Club, Drawn Together, Drinking Tea

I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix?

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.254, Penguin

topic: Children, Character, Chinese, Joy Luck Club

A girl is like a young tree, she said. You must stand tall and listen to your mother standing next to you. That is the only way to grow strong and straight. But if you bend to listen to other people, you will grow crooked and weak. You will fall to the ground with the first strong wind. And then you will be like a weed, growing wild in any direction, running along the ground until someone pulls you out and throws you away.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.191, Penguin

topic: Girl, Mother, Running, Joy Luck Club, Strong Winds

Fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention.

- Amy Tan

topic: Fate, Expectations, Half, Joy Luck Club, Inattention

It is because I had so much joy that I came to have so much hate.

- Amy Tan

topic: Hate, Joy, Joy Luck Club

Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess." - Ch. 5

- Amy Tan

topic: Play, Use, Want, Joy Luck Club, Using Me

Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club: A Novel”, p.161, Penguin

topic: Jesus, Thinking, Quality, Joy Luck Club

Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.

- Amy Tan

topic: Pain, Flesh, Young, Joy Luck Club

Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.

- Amy Tan

topic: Daughter, Laughing, Forever, Joy Luck Club

I saw what I had been fighting for: it was for me, a scared child...

- Amy Tan

topic: Children, Fighting, Saws, Joy Luck Club, Knitting Needles

And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over. -Rose

- Amy Tan

topic: Fate, Thinking, Expectations, Joy Luck Club, Faith In Love

For woman is yin, the darkness within, where untempered passions lie. And man is yang, bright truth lighting our minds.

- Amy Tan

topic: Lying, Passion, Men, Joy Luck Club, Darkness Within

I began to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid.

- Amy Tan

topic: Opportunity, Events, Looks, Joy Luck Club

And I remember wondering why it was that eating something good could make me feel so terrible, while vomiting something terrible could make me feel so good.

- Amy Tan

topic: Vomiting, Remember, Wonder, Joy Luck Club

My mother had a look on her face that I'll never forget. It was one of complete despair and horror, for losing Bing, for being so foolish as to think she could use faith to change fate.

- Amy Tan

topic: Mother, Fate, Thinking, Joy Luck Club

On the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother's case, this would be the first day of the lunar new year. And because it is the new year, all debts must be paid, or disaster and misfortune will follow.

- Amy Tan

topic: Mother, New Year, Years, Joy Luck Club

But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better. -Jing-mei

- Amy Tan

topic: Regret, Get Better, Way, Joy Luck Club

I had on a beautiful red dress, but what I saw was even more valuable. I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind. -Lindo

- Amy Tan

topic: Beautiful, Strong, Wind, Joy Luck Club

I have always known a thing before it happens.

- Amy Tan

topic: Joy Luck Club

For all these years I kept my mouth closed so selfish desires would not fall out. And because I remained quiet for so long now my daughter does not hear me... All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. And because I moved so secretly now my daughter does not see me... We are lost, she and I, unseen and not seeing; unheard and not hearing, unknown by others.

- Amy Tan

topic: Running, Daughter, Selfish, Joy Luck Club, Selfish Desire

We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable. -Suyuan

- Amy Tan

topic: Wish, Despair, Unbearable, Joy Luck Club

And after I played them both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.

- Amy Tan

source: Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.144, Penguin

topic: Song, Two, Half, Joy Luck Club

And below the heimongmong, all along the ground, were weeds already spilling out over the edges, running wild in every direction.

- Amy Tan

topic: Running, Weed, Spilling, Joy Luck Club, Running Wild