Kelly Yang > Quotes

“... a mistake isn't always a mistake. ... Sometimes a mistake is actually an opportunity, but we just can't see it right then and there.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“But you can't give up on people. It's one of the three keys of friendship. You gotta listen, you gotta care, and most importantly, you gotta keep trying.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“Sometimes terrible things happen, but there's nothing more terrible than not having anybody to tell it to.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“It's going to be okay. I'll make friends, and if I don't, I'll borrow books from the library.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“Do you ever get the feeling like everyone’s looking at you but no one actually sees you?”
― Kelly Yang, Parachutes

“So what'd you write about?'

'I wrote about how last weekend my parents and I waited in line at the movies for an hour, and when we finally got up to the ticket booth lady, they were sold out! Isn't that sad?'

'That is super sad,' I said, wishing, hoping, one day that would be my super sad.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“Is this what the rest of my life is going to be like? Moments of happiness punctured by the memory of what happened, like a bomb which can detonate at any time.”
― Kelly Yang, Parachutes

“As she starts the car, I put my feet up on the dash. Two girls from opposite sides of the earth, emerging from the ashes, stronger.”
― Kelly Yang, Parachutes

“Welcome to America! Where everyone walks around in gym clothes and nobody goes to the gym!”
― Kelly Yang, Parachutes

“Girl, justice is something Americans invented to sell movies”
― Kelly Yang, Parachutes

“Tomorrow, she'll get up and say a bunch of woke words she doesn't believe, and everyone will clap and smile and feel good about themselves, while the world continues to spin in the sexist, racist, classist mess that it is.”
― Kelly Yang, Parachutes

“Friendship is kind of like a river -- there are ebbs and flows. Just because you're in an ebb doesn't mean the whole river's dried up.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“The pain broke my heart into a thousand pieces.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“Race might be a social construct, but racism’s as real as the clouds,” he said, pointing at the sky. “You can see it, and you can feel it when it pours.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“You know what you are in English? You’re a bicycle, and the other kids are cars.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk (Front Desk #1)

“It’s like being a pencil, when everyone else is a pen,” she finally said. “You worry you can be erased anytime.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“We're all connected to each other. We all breathe the same air into our lungs. None of us are immune to each other's problems, that's why we have to care about each other.”
― Kelly Yang, New from Here

“Going to school in America is sort of like learning to swim … in the ocean.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“I wondered which was better—to have had something for just a second and then have it taken away, or to have never had it at all.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“Sometimes, problems seem humongous in your head, but if you tell someone, you'd be surprised what can happen.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“We’re immigrants,” she said. “Our lives are never fair.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk (Front Desk #1)

“Sometimes a mistake is actually an opportunity, but we just can't see it right then and there" -Dad”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk

“That was the problem with keeping a secret—you are all alone, on your own little island.”
― Kelly Yang, Front Desk (Front Desk #1)

“think an accent is like your very own unique signature of all the places you’ve been. Like stamps in a passport. It has nothing to do with where you’re going.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“Love is the only vaccine for hate. It's love that gets us through the hard times. And it's love that will bind us back together as a community, nation, and world.”
― Kelly Yang, New from Here

“Labels were like soda cans -- they get thrown around a lot, but if you crush them with your feet, they don't take up any space at all.”
― Kelly Yang, Room to Dream

“Have you eaten" in Chinese culture is as close to "I love you" and "I forgive you" as you can get.”
― Kelly Yang, Private Label: A Contemporary YA Romance About Two Chinese Immigrant Teens Finding Love and Belonging

“I have fear every day...But let me tell you something about fear: If you don't control it, it controls you.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“America is a nation of immigrants. Our founders were immigrants. They worked hard to create a country that would welcome everyone.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys

“Here we treat everyone like family,” I said. “No matter who you are and where you came from. That’s what makes it special to me.”
― Kelly Yang, Three Keys