Elaine Hsieh Chou > Quotes

“She'd be split apart, never certain if the submissive and docile figure in the mirror was a reflection of who she really was, or the ghostly effect of someone telling her her entire life: this is who you are, this is all you can ever be.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“For your information, censorship only exists from the top down. The powerless cannot censor anything. This”—she flung her arm towards the theater—“is called speaking truth to power.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“How was it possible to be so desired and so hated, the two intertwined like heads of the same beast?”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Although she had left academia firmly in the rearview mirror, its former habits still clung to her: obsessiveness, overanalyzing meaningless incidents and a deep pleasure derived from sleuthing, or as it was usually known, “researching.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Never apologize, Ingrid. Especially not when it concerns a man.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“How easily the Chinese vacillated between ally and enemy every hundred years depending on who America was mad at or what America wanted. When needed, they could stand in as white, or at least, white enough to slaughter other Asian men and women in America’s wars, but with the snap of a finger, they were yellow again—the color of a disease, the color of a warning. Indistinguishable from the yellow men and women they’d slaughtered. Any temporary acceptance into whiteness revoked as quickly as it’d been granted.
Because that was the thing: they were never white to begin with.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“This was her punishment for questioning the world as it was, instead of swallowing it blind like an obedient child taking her medicine.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Childhood: tolerated alone, her parents wholly unaware of the microscopic nicks and scrapes she sustained each day.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“For once in her life, she wanted to be selfishly and deliciously lazy. To embody the most abhorred word of her generation: unproductive.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“American children like you are so easily offended. I think you like being offended. Because you have never been hungry or poor.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“I know this isn’t what you want to hear. But sometimes the person we’re looking for doesn’t turn out to be the kind of person we hoped they’d be. That doesn’t mean it’s not them. All right? The last thing you want is to let yourself get distracted by your emotions.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“In many ways, poetry serves no purpose. It cannot cure sickness, it cannot end wars, it cannot feed the hungry. And yet, a society without poetry is not a society at all. We need poetry to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. We need poetry to examine, on a microscopic level, beauty and pain and everything in between. We need poetry as much as we need our own humanity.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Just when she thought she had a handle on who someone was, on the exact shape and size of their character, on the precise quantity of their goodness and badness, they insisted on changing.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“None of this is new; most of it is predictable; is it still interesting? When something true is repeated too often, its truth is diluted.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“For once in her life, she wanted to be selfishly and deliciously lazy. To embody the most abhorred word of her generation: unproductive. She, yes she, wanted to be the person who walks away as a car combusts into flames in the background. This was her chance.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“The simple fact was that, faced with despair versus hope, Ingrid had chosen the latter.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“She stared at him in a daze, waiting for his words to reshape themselves into "It's not you, it's me, let's still be friends, can I have my blender back?" When they did not, she blubbered, "You—you—what?”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Would die for animals, but only animals.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Where Are You Really From

“For fuck's sake!" Ingrid cried aloud. She charged into an ice cream shop and re-emerged with two cones, groaning unhappily as she licked away at both, then stormed up the street towards Wittlebury Park. Passersby dodged out the way, aware this woman was not to be crossed. She plopped on a bench, hardly tasting her sea salt caramel and hazelnut swirl.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Truthfully, she was tired of taking the hard way out. Why was "sucking it up" and "pushing through to the end" perched on such a high pedestal, anyway? These were the same so-called values that sent PhD students running headfirst into the open arms of antidepressants. For once in her life, she wanted to be selfishly and deliciously lazy. To embody the most abhorred word of her generation: unproductive. She, yes she, wanted to be the person who walks away as a car combusts into flames in the background. This was her chance.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Wenli took another hit and exhaled. “Barnes is backed by wealth, prestige and power. Take what you can and leverage it for yourself. You’re right the degree might carry less . . . significance in the world now. But you’ll be a doctor. No matter how facetious it is, the world runs on titles and awards. People only want to invest in what’s already been invested in. That’s been my experience, anyway,” she shrugged. “So use those three little letters behind your name to your advantage. Think of what Barnes can do for you.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

“Though it was a little shabby and could do with more frequent dusting, sudents flocked to the café for the worn-in armchairs and couches, free wi-fi and cheap coffee. Ingrid particularly liked the topsy-turvy lamps, the bookshelves open for browsing and a live-in cat, Agatha. She was a temperamental, sticky-furred tuxedo who had once single-handedly thwarted an armed robbery.”
― Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation