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Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.
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reading
writing
storytellers
storytelling
novelists
writers
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Lisa See |
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I am old enough to know only too well my good and bad qualities, which were often one in the same.
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Lisa See |
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May and I are sisters. We'll always fight, but we'll always make up as well. That's what sisters do: we argue, we point out each other's frailties, mistakes, and bad judgment, we flash the insecurities we've had since childhood, and then we come back together. Until the next time.
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sisters
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Lisa See |
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For my entire life I longed for love. I knew it was not right for me -- as a girl and later as a woman -- to want or expect it, but I did, and this unjustified desire has been at the root of every problem I have experienced in my life.
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Lisa See |
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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 left in the world who shares my memories of our childhood, our parents, our Shanghai, our struggles, our sorrows, and, yes, even our moments of happiness and triumph. My sister is the one person who truly knows me, as I know her. The last thing May s..
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sisters
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Lisa See |
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He was in my hair, my eyes, my fingers, my heart. I day-dreamed about what he was doing, thinking, seeing, smelling, feeling. I could not eat for thoughts of him.
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love
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Lisa See |
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In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.
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regrets
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Lisa See |
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Anyone who says that women do not have influence in men's decisions makes a vast and stupid mistake.
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Lisa See |
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Obey, obey, obey, then do what you want.
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Lisa See |
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When I knew I couldn't suffer another moment of pain, and tears fell on my bloody bindings, my mother spoke softly into my ear, encouraging me to go one more hour, one more day, one more week, reminding me of the rewards I would have if I carried on a little longer. In this way, she taught me how to endure -- not just the physical trials of footbinding and childbearing but the more torturous pain of the heart, mind, and soul.
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Lisa See |
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Maybe we're all like that with our mothers. They seem ordinary until one day they're extraordinary.
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Lisa See |
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In our country we call this type of mother love teng ai. My son has told me that in men's writing it is composed of two characters. The first means pain; the second means love. That is a mother's love.
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unconditional-love
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Lisa See |
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We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.
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Lisa See |
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The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child.
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love
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Lisa See |
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You may be desperate, but never let anyone see you as anything less than a cultivated woman.
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women
desparation
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Lisa See |
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But then this is how it is for women everywhere. You experience one lapse in conscience, in how low you think you'll go, in what you'll accept, and pretty soon you're at the bottom
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Lisa See |