Bette Bao Lord > Quotes

“I pledge allegiance to the frog of the United States of America and to the wee public for witches hands one Asian, under God, in the vestibule with little tea and just rice for all.”
― Bette Bao Lord, In The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

“Suddenly Shirley understood why her father had brought her 10,000 miles to live among strangers. Here, she did not have to wait for gray hairs to be considered wise. Here, she could speak up, question even the conduct of the President. Here, Shirley Temple Wong was somebody. She felt as if she had the power of ten tigers, as if she had grown as tall as the Statue of Liberty.”
― Bette Bao Lord

“The Hanlin named his granddaughter Lustrous Jade, for jade was the fairest of stones and possessed five virtues: charity, for its lustre; rectitude, for its translucence; wisdom, for its purity of sound when struck; equity, for its sharp edges that injure none; courage, for it can be broken but not bent.”
― Bette Bao Lord, Spring Moon: A Novel of China – A New York Times Bestselling Historical Epic of the Human Spirit Through Generations of Revolution

“Be extra good. Upon your shoulders rests the reputation of all Chinese.”
― Bette Bao Lord, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

“By the time Shirley had entered the sixth-grade room at P. S. 8, she had forgotten the nightmare and, with it, her fears. At Mr. P’s Tommy O’Brien had snuck up from behind to tug a braid. “Hey, Chop Suey, how are you doey?” Grinning, he then bowed deeply. She thought it rather wonderful that he remembered something she had done so long ago.”
― Bette Bao Lord, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

“If your heart did not break now and then, Spring Moon, how would you know it was there? Hearts break, then mend and break and mend again in a cycle without beginning, without end. As surely as dawn sows the evening, twilight sows the morn.”
― Bette Bao Lord, Spring Moon: A Novel of China – A New York Times Bestselling Historical Epic of the Human Spirit Through Generations of Revolution

“Father opened the bigger of the white boxes. “It’s easy. Everything needed is in here.” Eggs hung in the door, bottles with colored fluids stood on a shelf. There were beans, spinach and oranges in one drawer, slabs of meat in another.
Peeking inside, Shirley got goose bumps from the cold. But she couldn’t find the window. She tugged at Father’s coat. “I don’t see the window to the outside,” she said.
Father laughed. “This, Shirley Temple Wong, is an ice box. A machine that cools food and keeps it from spoiling. In America you only have to market once a week, not every day.”
“And I suppose,” Mother said, “in America the wife does that, too.”
“That’s right.”
― Bette Bao Lord, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson: Novel-Ties Study Guide

“Father opened the bigger of the white boxes. “It’s easy. Everything needed is in here.” Eggs hung in the door, bottles with colored fluids stood on a shelf. There were beans, spinach and oranges in one drawer, slabs of meat in another.”
― Bette Bao Lord, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

“Still, Bandit dared not ask. How many times had she been told that no proper member of an upright Confucian family ever questioned the conduct of elders? Or that children must wait until invited to speak? Countless times. Only the aged were considered wise.”
― Bette Bao Lord, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

“Very timely too: "Suddenly Shirley understood why her father had brought her 10,000 miles to live among strangers. Here, she did not have to wait for gray hairs to be considered wise. Here, she could speak up, question even the conduct of the President. Here, Shirley Temple Wong was somebody. She felt as if she had the power of ten tigers, as if she had grown as tall as the Statue of Liberty.”
― Bette Bao Lord

“Remember that we are not gods who can fashion events to our desires. We are mere mortals who must learn not to contend with life but to yield to it.”
― Bette Bao Lord, Spring Moon: A Novel of China – A New York Times Bestselling Historical Epic of the Human Spirit Through Generations of Revolution