Chen Chen > Quotes

“Aren’t all great love stories, at their core, great mistakes?”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“Sometimes, parents & children become the most common strangers. Eventually, a street appears where they can meet again.”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend.
But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short
skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday.
My mother was in the hospital & no one wanted to be her friend.
Everyone wanted to be soft cooing sympathies. Very reasonable
pigeons. No one had the time & our solution to it
was to buy shinier watches. We were enamored with
what our wrists could declare. My mother was in the hospital
& I didn't want to be her friend. Typical son. Tall latte, short tale,
bad plot, great wifi in the atypical café. My mother was in the hospital
& she didn't want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family
grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn't trust my father
to be it. You always forget something, she said, even when
I do the list for you. Even then.”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“What is it, to remember nothing, of what one loved?”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“Think of silence as a violence, when silence means being made a frozen sea. Think of speaking as a violence, when speaking is a house that dresses your life in the tidiest wallpaper. It makes your grief sit down, this house. It makes you chairs when you need justice. It keeps your rage room temperature.”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“You are just in the same room with me & my unsweet, uncharming, completely uninteresting sadness. I wish it could unbelong itself from me, unstick from my face.”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“I’m envious of the clouds who can from time to time fall completely apart & everyone just says, It’s raining, & someone might even bring cats & dogs into it, no one says, Stop being so dramatic or You should see a professional.”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“I’m envious of the clouds who can from time to time fall completely apart & everyone just says, It’s raining, & someone might even bring cats & dogs into it,”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“One can be sad in Paris (I was) & one can be in love in Paris (I was not), but angry? Angry in Paris?”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

“I forgot to fear abandonment & abandoned myself beautifully”
― Chen Chen, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities