Jane Kuo > Quotes

“Everything is good and okay / because more than anything else, / phone calls are about saying positive things / so the other person doesn't feel bad.”
― Jane Kuo, Land of Broken Promises: A Middle Grade Novel in Verse about Immigration, Identity, and Being Undocumented for Kids

“The problem with pretty stories is that they're not true. / Stories fill your head with all sorts of ideas, / and then all you're left with is an empty stomach.”
― Jane Kuo, Land of Broken Promises: A Middle Grade Novel in Verse about Immigration, Identity, and Being Undocumented for Kids

“At its very core, a story is a gift from one person to another.”
― Jane Kuo

“We shouldn't be so busy surviving / that we forget to live.”
― Jane Kuo, Land of Broken Promises: A Middle Grade Novel in Verse about Immigration, Identity, and Being Undocumented for Kids

“It's part of the cost of immigrating / that the first generation pays.”
― Jane Kuo, Land of Broken Promises: A Middle Grade Novel in Verse about Immigration, Identity, and Being Undocumented for Kids

“I'm curious about this man / and why he's so afraid of losing his job to illegals. / I want to know if he works / in the kitchen of a restaurant, / or cleans houses, / or babysits children, / or washes cars, / or pushes a lawn mower, / or picks fruit, / or gives manicures, / or plucks chickens, / or maybe he works somewhere, anywhere, / under the table, / and that's why he's so afraid / of illegals taking his job.”
― Jane Kuo, Land of Broken Promises: A Middle Grade Novel in Verse about Immigration, Identity, and Being Undocumented for Kids

“I think what I love most / about reading / is how / I can be here / and also, / not here. / Terabithia, / Tulsa, / anywhere but here.”
― Jane Kuo, Land of Broken Promises: A Middle Grade Novel in Verse about Immigration, Identity, and Being Undocumented for Kids