Quynh Than > Quynh's Quotes

“Chị tao cưới một anh chàng kĩ sư. Mỗi lần hẹn hò về, chị đều kêu chán. Chán thế sao lại cưới? Chị nhìn tao thương hại mà nói, đấy là chuyện lựa chọn. Chuyện cưới xin còn phải tính nhiều đường lắm. Chỉ cần thấy cảm mến, chịu đựng được nhau là đủ rồi, say mê lắm có cần gì. Chồng chị, chắc mày cũng hình dung được, là loại người chẳng có điểm gì để chê, nhưng cũng chẳng có điểm gì cho chị quyến luyến đặc biệt. Đó là một sự kết hợp của nhiều yếu tố, tương lai nghề nghiệp, họ hàng gia đình, cự ly, độ nhẵn mặt và tính tình hiền lành dễ bảo.

Đám cưới chị tao, rất đông. Từ sáng đến tối. Bà chị tao đứng trước cửa tiếp khách, áo cưới trắng mồ hôi nhễ nhại, cố tươi cười bắt tay quan khách. Chú rể cứng đờ trong bộ vét, gật gù liên tục. Đến buổi trưa, có vẻ nóng quá nên họ cãi nhau ở trong buồng. Mẹ tao gắt: Cái gì mới ngày cưới mà đã cãi nhau vậy chứ?

Nhưng tao đoán, anh chị tao sẽ ổn cả thôi. Tao đã hình dung là hai người đó sẽ ổn. Sẽ là một cặp vợ chồng bình thường gắn bó, đôi lúc cãi vã vì những chuyện không đâu. Cả hai đều chấp nhận một tương lai như thế rồi. Nghĩ đến đó, trong dạ tao lại thấy khó chịu, một thứ nỗi buồn không tên tao không cắt nghĩa được, mà lại rất cụ thể, khiến tao càng khó chịu hơn.

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Tao chỉ cảm thấy buồn, khi biết rằng cuộc đời chị mình đã thế là yên ổn, thế là chấm dứt.”
― Nguyễn Dương Quỳnh, Thị Trấn Của Chúng Ta

“Your salary is not love and your word is not love. Your clothes are not love and holding hands is not love. Sex is not love and a kiss is not love. Long letters are not love and a text is not love. Flowers are not love and a box of chocolates is not love. Sunsets are not love and photographs are not love. The stars are not love and a beach under the moonlight is not love. The smell of someone else on your pillow is not love and the feeling of their skin touching your skin is not love. Heart-shaped candy is not love and an overseas holiday is not love. The truth is not love and winning an argument is not love. Warm coffee isn't love and cheap cards bought from stores are not love. Tears are not love and laughter is not love. A head on a shoulder is not love and messages written at the front of books given as gifts are not love. Apathy is not love and numbness is not love. A pain in your chest is not love and clenching your fist is not love. Rain is not love.

Only you. Only you, are love.”
― pleasefindthis, I Wrote This For You

“If you remember me, then I don't care if everyone else forgets.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Only people who've been discriminated against can really know how much it hurts. Each person feels the pain in his own way, each has his own scars. So I think I'm as concerned about fairness and justice as anybody. But what disgusts me even more are people who have no imagination. The kind T. S. Eliot calls hollow men. People who fill up that lack of imagination with heartless bits of straw, not even aware of what they're doing. Callous people who throw a lot of empty words at you, trying to force you to do what you don't want to. Like that lovely pair we just met.” He sighs and twirls the long slender pencil in his hand. “Gays, lesbians, straights, feminists, fascist pigs, communists, Hare Krishnas-- none of them bother me. I don't care what banner they raise. But what I can't stand are hollow people. When I'm with them I just can't bear it, and wind up saying things I shouldn't. With those women--I should've just let it slide, or else called Miss Saeki and let her handle it. She would have given them a smile and smoothed things over. But I just can't do “do that. I say things I shouldn't, do things I shouldn't do. I can't control myself. That's one of my weak points. Do you know why that's a weak point of mine?”
“'Cause if you take every single person who lacks much imagination seriously, there's no end to it,” I say.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Only the shallow know themselves”
― oscar wilde

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Some things are too important to be taken seriously.”
― Oscar Wilde

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
― Mark Twain

“As soon as a Western man comes into contact with the East -- he's already confused. The West has sort of an international rape mentality towards the East. ...Basically, 'Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes.' The West thinks of itself as masculine -- big guns, big industry, big money -- so the East is feminine -- weak, delicate, poor...but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom -- the feminine mystique. Her mouth says no, but her eyes say yes. The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated -- because a woman can't think for herself. ...You expect Oriental countries to submit to your guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly

“Tonight, I've finally learned to tell fantasy from reality. And, knowing the difference, I choose fantasy.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly

“Consider it this way: what would you say if a blond homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now I believe you should consider this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it's an Oriental who kills herself for a Westerner–ah!–you find it beautiful.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly

“Why, in the Peking Opera, are women's roles played by men?...Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.”
― David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos