26 quotes found
“Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.”
“In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”
“The problem with living so long is that you see too many people pass before you.”
“You make choices that are good and sound, but the gods have other plans for you.”
“How can the moon be scooped from the water's surface, or flowers be plucked from the void?”
“You may be desperate, but never let anyone see you as anything less than a cultivated woman.”
“All the time, I looked out our lattice window. I watched the birds fly by. I followed the clouds on their travels. I studied the moon as it grew larger, then shrank. So much happened outside my win...”
“We hug, but there are no tears. For every awful thing that's been said and done, she is my sister. Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life. She is the only person lef...”
“I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one in the same.”
“Wanting to give her the best fit I could, I sand the knowledge I had learned from Snow Flower. "Everyone needs clothing-no matter how cool it is in summer or how warm it is in winter-so make clothe...”
“The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child.”
“If it is perfectly acceptable for a widow to disfigure herself or commit suicide to save face for her husband's family, why should a mother not be moved to extreme action by the loss of a child or ...”
“Everyone knows that part of the spirit descends to the afterworld, while part of it remains with the family, but we have a special belief about the spirit of a young woman who has died before her m...”
“I imagined my first night alone in bed with my stranger. I conjured our future years together unhampered by worries about money or officialdom. We would enjoy the day, the night, a smile, a word, a...”
“I want a marriage of companionsone of shared lives and shared poems,' he murmured. 'If we were husband and wife, we would collect books, read, and drink tea together. As I told you before, I'd want...”
“In my life, no three miles have been flat and no three days have had sun. I've been brave in the past, but now I'm beyond devastated. My grief is like dense clouds that cannot be dispersed. I can't...”
“The Story of the Woman with Three Brothers"A woman once had three brothers. They all had wives, but she was not married. Though she was virtuous and hardworking, her brothers would not offer a dowr...”
“Every day since waking up in the hospital I've wanted to die, but watching that man sink below the waves, I feel something inside me rise up. A Dragon doesn't surrender. A Dragon fights fate. This ...”
“I have heard that you should not do bed business after too much hard work, " Snow Flower told me, "but I don't believe that my mother-in-law has heard that." She looked exhausted. I felt the same w...”
“the human body is a miniature version of the universe - the eyes and ears are the sun and moon, breath is air, blood is rain.”
