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I would never require anyone to read any book. That seems antithetical to why we read — which is to choose a book for our personal reasons. I always shudder when I’m told my books are on required reading lists.

— Amy Tan interview (2013)

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More quotes by Amy Tan

"You see what power is — holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them! Besides, maybe it is true. Maybe Peanut and Little Yu's mother are now big Communists, who knows?"

The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)

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

The Joy Luck Club (1989)

Whenever I'm with my mother, I feel as though I have to spend the whole time avoiding land mines.

The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)

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

The Joy Luck Club (1989)

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

All Amy Tan quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Amy Tan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.