41 quotes
In a time of destruction, create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.
The Fifth Book of Peace (2003)
Joy and life exist nowhere but the present.
Hunger also changes the world - when eating can't be a habit, then neither can seeing. (p26)
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976)
I hope my writing has many layers, as human beings have layers.
Cultural Mis-readings by American Reviewers (1982)
I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes. (p29)
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976)
Humans are basically good. That's why it takes so much training to march march march kill kill kill kill. ("Earth" p269)
The Fifth Book of Peace (2003)
Community is not built once-and-for-all; people have to imagine, practice, and re-create it. (p306)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989)
I think that in order to recognize a warm-hearted human being, you have to be a warm-hearted human being yourself.
All during the Vietnam War, I could feel there was a darkness hanging over the whole world and it lasted for so long.
If a woman is going to write a Book of Peace, it is given her to know devastation. ("Fire" opening line)
The Fifth Book of Peace (2003)
What's crazy is the idea that revolutionaries must shoot and bomb and kill, that revolution is the same as war. (p305)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989)
The lights of the city on hills make a vertical shimmer from sky straight into the water, like a backdrop, like a dream. (p37)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989)
He sings melodies that wind like ribbons into the vistas. (p75)
China Men (1980)
The hero's home has its own magic. (p81)
China Men (1980)
He spent the rest of the night looking for the plot of our ever-branching lives. A job can't be the plot of life, and not a soapy love-marriage-divorce--and hell no, not Viet Nam. (p288)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989)
I do believe that if we study any one discipline deeply, it will connect us to everything else.
She's lived for a long time, and in many places. Lucky to have her here now. (p268)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1989)
As you know, any plain person you chance to meet can prove to be a powerful immortal in disguise come to test you. (p119)
China Men (1980)
I have this motto which is, Pay attention and tell the truth. And in telling the truth, sometimes you tell it fictionally, sometimes you tell it nonfictionally.
Mental work was harder than physical work, although it was not exactly the mind that teaching strained. (p41)
China Men (1980)