E.M. Tran > Quotes

“It reminded me that there were places I could go and people I could be who were so far outside the bounds of my imagination that I could never imagine them until I arrived, until I became.”
― E.M. Tran, Daughters of the New Year

“Even after forty-one years here, she wore American citizenship with discomfort, like a pair of shoes half a size too small. The shoes could fit, yes, but every step reminded her she should not be wearing them, that she should be wearing something else.”
― E.M. Tran, Daughters of the New Year

“I was an adult when I confronted the fact that their memories were too painful, that the silences in our family were a method of survival. What they told me was often a version of the truth, the happy or exciting moments of their former lives; in sharing only these parts, they reshaped the truth, almost creating an entirely different one.”
― E.M. Tran, Daughters of the New Year