Amanda Chao > Amanda's Quotes

“Nothing . . . is ever so expensive as what is offered for free.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“There are a few years when you make almost all of your important memories. And then you spend the next few decades reliving them.”
― Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown

“A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Every time you remember something, the memory weakens, as you’re remembering the last recollection, rather than the memory itself. Nothing can remain in tact. Still, it does not stop you wanting, does not stop you longing.”
― Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water

“Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

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

“Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
― Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader

“I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter